Hearts of the Sea
by LiztheGreat
Summary: Sakura's ship is taken over by pirates on the way to meet her future husband. Determined to escape her fate, she embraces a life of piracy and everything that comes with it, including the very sexy captain. SxS, ExT
1. The Beginning

AN: Hello all this is my first fanfic… I just had this great idea for a story and of course I couldn't help but to write it up and post it up as soon as I can… I hope to update frequently and I hope that you will all enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed writing it…

Also I like reviews hint hint nudge nudge

**Sakura's POV**

The sea air was heavenly to someone who lived her life cramped up in a room with her aunt. She stared as the blue green waves crashed to form the delicate white sea foam.

She sighed, knowing that this escape from her personalized prison of corsets,needlework, and society would be over all too soon.

She jumped at the sound of a cough behind her…, " Uh… miss," the boy stammered, "the captain suggests you wait inside…."

"Why," Sakura asked.

The boy blushed a deep pink, "He says that the deck is no place for a woman."

Sakura's brows furrowed for a moment "of course," she replied, "how silly of me… I guess I was just amazed by with the beautiful view. My apologies."

Sakura cursed inside her head as she walked towards the door ' Why me! Why was I born into a place where I am nothing but a useless ornament who needs protection from everyone I meet! What could possibly happen on the deck anyways… perhaps they expect me to slip or maybe my face would just get a tinge to red from all of this sun' she thought bitterly.

Sakura walked into her room and washed her face in the basin. She looked up in her mirror into the face of what was viewed as a respectable lady of her time. She turned from the mirror in disgust. She sat upon her bed resting her head against her enormous pile of feather pillows and thought, 'What comes after this? I go meet the latest man my aunt has picked out for me to wed. Perhaps we do marry…. Then what? I produce several heirs for my future husband and then my life is supposed to be complete? Am I to be locked up into the house of my husband until I die?'

Sakura collapsed into bitter tears, 'my one purpose in life: be a good respectable wife, have lots of children… and raise them to have the same fate as my husband and I had before them…'

Flashback

8 years ago

A 10 year old girl with brown ringlets pulled back so they drape upon her shoulders sits in a mahogany chair covered in ornate cushions.

The girls emerald eyes are filled with frustration as she pricks herself with a needle while working on embroidery.

" Sakura," a tall intimidating women trills, "What man would ever marry a girl who cannot even embroider a simple floral pattern! You are positively hopeless! The only reason I stay as you governess is because I know if it weren't for me even a filthy peasant wouldn't take you as his bride!"

Sakura's eyes sparkle as fresh tears form in her eyes, "I'm sorry Auntie Desme, I am trying my hardest, honestly!"

"Well Sakura, sometimes trying isn't enough! You need to strive to become better otherwise no one will want you!"

"Excuse me," Sakura said cautiously, "What should I care if a man wants me or not, if he really loves me won't he love me anyways… even if I am poor at embroidery?"

"Oh stupid Sakura," the woman spat in distaste, "Stupid naïve Sakura. A man only wants a woman who will bring honor to his household. If you cannot even perform a task as simple as embroidery you will never be welcome into society, and no man would ever love an outsider. He would simply find someone better to bear his children."

end flashback

Sakura sighed and sat in front of her mirror 'no man loves an outsider… they just want a beautiful little trophy to brag about and then the trophy wife must try and focus her life on how she can make her husbands life better, and perhaps if she's lucky her husband will reward her with a trinket just as a master does with his dog.'

She frowned and then her face slid back into its usual emotionless yet eerily beautiful mask. She sat in front of her mirror and brushed her long brown tresses while her emerald eyes remained void of all emotion.

**Syaoran POV**

A young man with blue hair ran up to him, "Well Captain," he said, "I have only just been informed. A ship has been spotted, it is still a long distance off but from the looks of it they will have something of value on board."

"Is it a merchant's ship carrying cargo?" asked the amber eyed captain.

"We think so sir. However we think that passengers might be aboard as well."

"How can you tell?"

"Well the ship is much larger than the average ship especially in the size of the cabins… which means…"

"That they're rich!"

"Exactly," replied the blue haired man with a smirk playing on his face.

Syaoran got a smirk on his face and a glint in his eye as he barked, "Eriol get the men off their asses and tell them we've got a ship to catch!"

Eriol saluted the captain and an eager expression on his face as he went to tell the men the captain's orders.

**Sakura's POV**

A knock sounded on Sakura's door. Then a muffled cry, "Sakura I know you're in there!"

Sakura sighed and answered the door. "Hi Tomoyo."

Tomoyo sighed, her long stylish dress swishing around her imperiously as she entered. "Sakura I know something is bothering you, now what is it?"

"I don't know. I guess I feel like my life is ending too soon, I don't want to marry someone I barely know just because he is of good reputation. I don't want to be locked up in a house for the rest of my life. Even on this ship, my last escape from my future, I am being told to wait inside because the deck is 'no place for a lady'. I'm just sick of it I would like to have lived my life at least a little before it ends."

"Oh Sakura I'm so sorry. I wish I could help you."

"No please don't, I didn't wish to cause you distress. I just wish I could talk my aunt out of this."

Flashback

12 years ago

Fujitaka walks across his room carrying suits and throw them on his bed where he begins to pack them into a suitcase.

"Daddy, where are you going?" asked a 6 year old Sakura.

Fujitaka looked at Sakura and smiled at her. " Well Sakura I am going on a trip."

He pulled Sakura onto his knee "Where to Daddy? Can I come with you?"

"No Sakura, I must travel alone. I am going to find your Mommy and as much as I love you and will miss you I have realized that it is time for you to start your training as a young lady. Your aunt has made me realize that I have not been treating and training you as a young lady. Fortunately she has been kind enough to offer herself as a Governess to you and the caretaker of our estates in my absence."

"Daddy, I miss mommy"

"I do to Sakura, that's why I want to find her and bring her back to us."

"I'll miss you Daddy."

"I'll miss you to, more than you can know. But you need to promise me that you'll be a good little girl for your Auntie, won't you?"

"Yes daddy."

"While I am gone I will trust her judgment in your upbringing so don't question her and do as she says."

"Okay daddy"

end flashback

"Sakura I can't imagine how horrible it is for you to be forced into marriage like this. After all you know my mom she has made it perfectly clear that I am to marry for no other reasons then love," Tomoyo smiled to herself, "and that she does not want me to become the average social light. Of course with her past who could blame her?"

Sakura shot a kind smile at her friend.

"Sakura I want to help you escape for a day even if it is not all too exciting."

The green eyed beauty shot a questioning look at the amethyst one, "what exactly do you mean?"

"Well what if I could get you a day as a crew member," after Sakura shot a look of absolute confusion Tomoyo quickly responded, "I'd come with you of course, what do you think a day where you and I just ran around the ship and did just about whatever we pleased?"

"You mean like a disguise?"

"Yeah you and I would disguise ourselves as crew and just roam around the ship carefree. Perhaps we'd have to pretend to work at some points but we could get out of it easily."

"But Tomoyo… how could we…?

"Just leave it to me." Tomoyo shot Sakura a sly smile before she slid out the door.

**Captain's POV**

A younger boy walks into the captain's cabin and stammered "Uhhh Captain?"

"Captain we've noticed a ship in the distance."

"So what of it, we see ships all of the time it's probably jut a fishing boat or a cargo ship."

"Sir the lookouts believe that it is… a pirate ship."

"Damn," said the captain as a defined frown creased over his face, "are they sure?"

"Yes sir, they said that they're positive. The ship raised a flag that is known to be a flag used by pirates."

"Give my men the day off let them prepare for battle, whether it comes or not we need to be prepared."

**Sakura's POV**

After what seemed like ages a knock sounded at Sakura's door. Sakura hurriedly went to answer it, "did you get the stuff?" Sakura asked as Tomoyo entered the room

Tomoyo laid a large burlap sack on Sakura's bag and said, "of course," she then beamed at Sakura and said, "Can't you just feel the adrenaline rushing through you."

Sakura returned the smile and said, "more than you can imagine. I feel more alive then I've felt in years."

They rummaged through the bag laughing at the thought of what 'society' would think of them wearing men's breeches. Finally Sakura laughed, "Where did you find all of this Tomoyo?"

"It was in the storage room on the lower part of the ship."

"Tomoyo, you are amazing."

They quickly changed into their men's clothes and made sure to strap their chest down with bandages from the brown sack. After they changed Sakura asked, "What should we do with our hair?"

Tomoyo smiled as she pulled out the two remaining items from the burlap bag, two hats.

Tomoyo pulled back her own hair and placed it cleverly under the hat finally completing her look.

Sakura did the same sweeping her brown tresses up and under her hat.

The two girls looked at each other and laughed. "What a pair we make Sakura; we can pass for men, scrawny men who look slightly girlish, but never the less men."

The two smiled as they cautiously walked out of the cabin. They emerged onto desk feeling extremely proud of themselves. They found all of the men testing their blades and holding mock duels with their neighbors.

Sakura and Tomoyo stayed towards the edge of the deck watching the men duel each other. They watched diligently. Sakura inspected how the men swung a blade and observed closely when they performed little jabs, she watched as the duelers took advantage and waited for openings. She was entranced by the swishes of blades, and the cool and calculated dodging.

Suddenly, a man just finishing with a fight bumped into her and said, "Are you up for a fight?"

Tomoyo immediately went into panic mode and stammered, "W-w-well he…d-doesn't-"

"Yes," Sakura said confidently.

The man looked at Sakura closely, "I don't think I've seen you around before what's your name?"

"Saru," she lied quickly, "I usually help in the store rooms and kitchens. I don't get out on deck much."

"Oh so not much fighting experience, don't worry I'll teach you as we go along, you'll be a pro in no time." He said as he handed her a sword.

"Thank you," Sakura bowed to the man, she figured she might as well enjoy herself as much as possible today because after this she could expect a dull cramped life of containment in a mansion.

The man lunged towards her while bringing his sword across. Sakura quickly blocked the attack she then jumped backward throwing the man off balance and took a swipe towards his chest he caught himself just in time and blocked. He chuckled, "looks like I don't need to go easy on you; have you ever fought before?"

"No sir," she replied, disguising her voice to sound as masculine as possible.

"Well then you're a natural and a good one at that." He took a step and made a jab motion towards her side. Sakura quickly dodged and swiped at his legs he jumped back to avoid the sword and made a quick jab for her stomach but Sakura was too quick she brought her sword across to block and then up causing the man to once again lose his balance. He recovered quickly and with a smile at her he jumped grabbed, on to a rope hanging from the sail, swung and landed behind her, he pointed his sword at her back.

He laughed and said, "Well laddie you're fair good, just remember to know what's around you you'll never know when it'll come in use. After all we wouldn't want the pirates to get the upper hand."

Sakura smiled at the compliment and remembered the advice, "wait, pirates? What pirates."

The man got a curious expression on his face, "why the ones that be chasing us. Why else would the captain let us off our usual duties?"

Sakura frowned and the recovered, "Of course, the people downstairs never gave us the specifics…"

Sakura bowed and walked over to Tomoyo who was in awe of Sakura's fighting capabilities and said, "We have a lot to talk about."

**Syaoran POV**

A man ran up to Syaoran, "Captain we are gaining, we should reach the ship by nightfall."

"Excellent," Syaoran replied.

AN: dun dun DUN! Lol

Well I hope you enjoyed chapter 1. I enjoyed writing it so I hope you enjoy reading it. Also please leave reviews I adore reviews and I really appreciate when people take a couple of seconds to fill one out. Next chapter the fight begins evil author smirk


	2. The Fight

AN: Thank you for the feedback from chapter 1. I really appreciate everything you had to say, it really gives me motivation to write. Anyways… onto the chapter!

**Captain POV**

"Captain, the pirates will reach us by night fall."

The Captain scowled and said, "Go down and check on the two women we have as passengers. They are our top priority, gently inform them of them of the oncoming attack and assure them that they will be protected in every way possible."

"Yes sir."

**Sakura POV**

"You mean?" asked Tomoyo.

"Yes that's what he said. Pirates are coming!" Sakura said her eyes wide with fear and excitement.

"What are we going to do?" asked Tomoyo with the same look in her eyes.

"I want to fight! Tomoyo this isn't just for fun we're fighting for our lives."

"If you fight I will fight with you Sakura."

**Captain POV**

"Captain, they weren't down there. We can't find the women anywhere."

**Sakura POV**

Sakura pulled Tomoyo aside and started teaching her the basics of sword fighting.

"Okay you need to be watching me the entire time, don't try and think of anything else, don't even think of strategies just watch," Sakura instructed. Tomoyo nodded in understanding.

"Now look for openings also watch for any signs of an attack, I noticed a lot of the crew would either tense, flinch or do something else unconsciously right before they would lunge, Keep an eye out for that."

"Sakura, how did you get so good at this you are just about as new to this as I am."

"Well I am a beginner to, I just always figured the best way to learn is to watch and pay attention." Sakura smirked. Suddenly she heard a creak behind her.

The captain stood there, "Well ladies, I certainly didn't expect this."

The girls froze completely petrified, they had been discovered.

"I am surprised you had the audacity to think you could hide from me," he took a breath to calm himself, "as you know this ship will be engaging with pirates in just a few hours."

Both girls nodded with their eyes lowered.

"Well then you will certainly understand that special precautions will need to be taken for your safety. That is why until we have finished defending ourselves from the pirates you will be locked in your room."

Sakura immediately stood up, "But sir, surely-."

"No buts, my decision is final. Fuji and Kai come here," he took the swords from the girls' hands and motioned for two of the crew. "Escort these ladies to their rooms and lock the doors behind them."

"Sir, May Sakura and I at least be placed in the same room. I am so very frightened of pirates; I would positively die of fright if I were completely alone." Tomoyo stated with a little of a damsel in distress act.

The captain frowned and said, "Fine," he looked at the two men, "make sure the door is securely locked!

The men followed the girls as they walked to Sakura's room. Immediately after the girls walked through the door it slammed shut behind them and they can hear the clanks of a key being turned from the outside.

Sakura groaned, "Why won't they let us help? We have the right to defend ourselves just as the rest of the crew does!

Tomoyo took off her hat, "I know, I guess for know we'll just have to wait." Tomoyo put their hats on the dresser.

BANG!

Suddenly Tomoyo tumbled onto the bed next to Sakura.

Sakura frowned, "and so the battle begins."

**Syaoran's POV**

"Good shot," Syaoran yelled, "Now fire another canon! And the rest of you prepare to board!"

**Sakura's POV**

Another Canon hit the boat causing Sakura's head to hit the wall with surprising force. They could hear the crash of steel on steel upstairs and knew that the pirates had boarded.

**Syaoran's POV**

The men continued to board the other ship fighting mercilessly. He smirked as he jumped into the fight wielding his sword. He slashed and jabbed fiercely, he knew that though the fight had barely begun they would soon be victorious. His crew trained for fighting and would not be beaten by deck swabs and navigators not to mention that his crew outnumbered theirs two to one. As he fought someone who was particularly fierce (yet no match for him) he barked orders for his men to explore the ship while others remained fighting.

A quarter of the crew disappeared instantly looking for gold and cargo to carry onto their ship.

**Sakura's POV**

Tomoyo and Sakura looked at each other as they heard a rush of feet entering the lower compartments of the ship. They looked at each other, eyes full of worry when they suddenly heard someone trying to open the door and failing.

They heard a wheezy voice say through the door, "hey help me with this door, it's locked. And you know that all of the good things are behind locked doors." The man chuckled.

Sakura quickly grabbed Tomoyo and shoved her behind the dresser. She grabbed her water basin and hid behind the door.

Suddenly with a crash the lock was sent flying across the room with an axe in it's original place on the door. The door swung open revealing an older man missing a few teeth. Sakura waited, squished between the wall and door. The door naturally started to swing shut and as the man inspected the room from his position Sakura sent the water basin crashing over his head.

The man crumpled to the floor along with the porcelain shards from the basin. Sakura knelt down and grabbed the man's sword. She quickly rushed out the door catching a pirate by surprise she hit him with the base of the sword knocking him out cold.

She ran down the hall, sword in hand and entered the fray. She could tell that the crew was losing to the pirates, but she wasn't about to surrender, so she fought all the more fiercely.

She ran up to an idle pirate and started slashing towards his torso he laughed, "What's a wee lass like you doing with a sword."

She scowled as she lunged toward him sword out, he quickly dodged out of the way, his breath getting ragged. He jabbed at her torso she ducked but the sword left a nasty gash on her shoulder.

Sakura winced in pain but collected herself quickly and made a sharp jab at his side. The man shouted in pain as her sword pierced his skin he collapsed to the floor.

She had never been more frightened in her life but she had never felt more alive, she looked around and readied herself for another attack. She found herself being surrounded by six pirates. Sakura panicked there was no way she could fight off six pirates at the same time. She looked up and saw a sail above her with yards of rope hanging down (they help raise the sails) she jumped and grabbed onto a bit of rope she kicked off of the wood pole and swung herself legs kicking outward directly at the pirates sending three of them sprawling across the ship. She pushed off again knocking out two others.

**Syaoran's POV**

Syaoran had just finished fighting another member of the crew when he saw several members of his crew knocked to the ground. He frowned in confusion, his crew was rarely defeated he charged towards the location this had all taken place but got caught up in more fights while on his way.

He didn't care how long he was delayed he was going to find out what happened, for it was very rare that his crew was bested.

**Sakura's POV**

She jumped down from the rope, sword in hand to fight off the final pirate. She lunged at him but he quickly dodged she slashed at him and he continued to block all of her attacks. Her brows furrowed in frustration as sweat began to streak her face.

Suddenly in a quick gesture the man swung his sword around hers and knocked it out of her hands. Sakura lunged at the man and brought her fist up to his face, the blue haired man dropped his sword in shock. She punched him in the gut throwing every ounce of energy she had in to the fight. She sent him sprawling.

She smirked at the man she had punched she did not know she had such strength. She ran to grab her sword when a strong pirate caught her and said, "Gotcha."

He threw her over his shoulder and yelled for someone to tie her up. Sakura kicked and pounded on the man's back and finally he dropped her. She ran to grab a sword but someone grabbed it before her.

Her emerald eyes met amber. "Well what do we have here?" he said.

Sakura froze in place unable to move.

The man remained looking at her, "Someone tie her up," he barked.

Sakura looked around and noticed she was completely surrounded. She lowered her head in resignation furious at herself for being caught.

The man looked at her with amused eyes, "Does the spitfire have a name?"

Sakura looked up at him coldly but couldn't help notice how attractive he was. He stood about 6'2 and good build, was tan from being out on deck all day, and had gorgeous chestnut hair that she longed to run her fingers through.

He laughed and said, "Glaring doesn't answer my question."

Sakura continued to glare at him, how dare he laugh at her. "Sakura."

"Well Sakura, I guess congratulations are in order," Sakura looked at him in surprise, "It is not often that my crew is bested and even rarer that they would be by a woman."

She scowled at him again, but he continued, "That is why I simply must insist you accompany us when we leave."

"NOO!" Sakura looked and there stood Tomoyo with a sword in her hand. "I won't let you take her!"

The man laughed, "A friend of the spitfire?"

Pirates came closing in on Tomoyo she stuttered "I w-w-will f-fight you!"

Sakura panicked and stood (which was quite a feat considering she was tied up), "Don't hurt her!" she saw everyone look at her before exhaustion took over and she fainted.

AN:

I thought about continuing for the sake of length but honestly I really wanted a cliffhanger… I said I'd update soon and I think I have. I know it was shorter than the last and I apologize but at least it was action packed.

I know the last chapter was longer and was pretty dull with all of the flashbacks but I can guarantee you they weren't just to take up space… everything I write will have a purpose.

Once again I really appreciate the feedback it really makes me want to update sooner, that applies especially for the next chapter seeing as I haven't finished writing it (for that matter I have barely started) (but fear not I write quickly)

Feel free to ask any questions or comment on anything you have noticed and I just might respond to it… or hint at something. This chapter had a lot more action I know it. Trust me when I say that the chapters will continue to get better as we finally get into the plot for I have barely even scratched the surface of the iceberg… there is a lot of stuff to come.. and I can honestly say I can't wait to dive into the plot .

I hope you enjoyed once again feedback is appreciated and inspires me to write longer chapters quicker.


	3. A New Home

AN: Thanks for all the feedback and the reviews I REALLY appreciated it! I will be responding to a few of the comments on the bottom.

**Last time:**

_Pirates came closing in on Tomoyo she stuttered "I w-w-will f-fight you!"_

_Sakura panicked and stood (which was quite a feat considering she was tied up), "Don't hurt her!" she saw everyone look at her before exhaustion took over and she fainted._

**Chapter 3**

_**A New Home**_

**Sakura's POV**

_Dream_

Sakura walked through a seemingly empty meadow, in the distance she saw a lone tree and even further she saw a little hut. Sakura stricken by curiosity walked quickly to reach this tree and to look at the hut.

She raced towards the tree; it bloomed with the loveliest cherry blossoms she had ever seen. As she ran, Sakura noticed pieces of paper blowing in the wind; however she wouldn't stop to look at them.

Finally Sakura reached the tree and clung to it as she tried to catch her breath. Then she noticed a glint of silver from the corner of her eye. She looked closer and saw it was a sword, the most beautiful one that she had ever seen, the blade looked extremely sharp and had intricate etchings of cherry blossoms on it.

Suddenly a piece of paper that was blowing around blew right into her face. She grabbed it and looked at it. It appeared to be a contract for a trade she began to read but stopped immediately when it said, "I hereby pledge to honor my trade of Sakura Kinomoto-"

Then everything went black.

_End Dream_

Sakura yawned and stretched and slowly opened her eyes. She was in a room unfamiliar to her, though she was sure it was on a ship. Sakura slid out of her bed and was horrified to realize that she was in her underclothes but fortunately her under garments were covered by her nightgown.

She clutched her robe closer to herself when she suddenly heard someone banging on her door.

Sakura slowly edged to the door and timidly opened it.

A towering pirate came barging in. Sakura was unaccustomed appalled at the site of a man in her room, "excuse me," she cried.

The man looked at her and laughed, "You're excused."

Sakura overcome by the nerve of this man shouted, "Where am I, and What are you doing here?"

The man laughed at her some more, "You lass are on the _Vengeance,_ and I am here to tell you that the captain would like t'talk to ya."

Sakura looked into his eyes and said, "I won't."

The man started laughing at her again, "The captain warned me you might say that."

The man grabbed Sakura threw her over his back. Sakura caught completely off guard, was speechless. As the man opened the door and carried her out she pounded on his back. The man kept walking calmly as if she were being perfectly docile. The man walked up a set of stairs onto the deck. The men promptly started laughing, cheering, and catcalling her. Sakura's fury was rapidly rising as he continued walking through the deck until he reached his destination where he opened the door tossed her yelled, "Here she is captain," and left slamming the door behind him.

Sakura scowled as she got up from the ground.

A deep chuckle was heard "Why hello Miss. Kinomoto."

Sakura stood up and looked right into deep amber eyes she realized that he was who had prevented her from retrieving her sword was now in the captains office, and the only one who would be in the captains office (besides herself)…

"I hate you," Sakura spat.

The man's face morphed from good humored to serious in an instant, "it would have been easier if you had just agreed to come here."

"Why did you bring me here? Where is Tomoyo?"

The man looked at her thoughtfully, "You were a decent fighter, but mainly I was intrigued. Oh and your friend is safe shortly after you passed out she said she would do _anything_ for you and her to not be separated."

Sakura was very nervous as she said, "anything?"

Syaoran smirked and said, "_Anything…_ and that's why we put her on kitchen duty. It's a large step up from our last cook."

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief and replied, "Oh, she'll enjoy that."

Syaoran looked at her closely and sighed, "now what should we do with you?"

Sakura was nervous but raised herself up to her full height to prove she was not easily intimidated.

"I know, perhaps we could put you in an entry level position," Syaoran smirked, "I think the position of Deck Swab would suite you quite well, unless you think such a job is below you of course."

Sakura clenched her fists but maintained a calm expression of dignified indifference, she could tell he was just trying to get a rise out of her, "I guarantee you that I would be embarrassed if you put me in any position other than an entry level. I wish to be treated just as any other member of your crew."

Syaoran did not expect this reaction from her and raised an eyebrow.

Sakura hastily continued, "for example, shall I assume that you have all of your crew members are carried to meet you wearing only their dressing gowns?"

Syaoran looked down and for the first time realized she was only in her dressing gown and robe his eyes drifted to areas other than her eyes/

Sakura coughed loudly and scowled.

Syaoran's eyes once again connected with hers as he said, "no one from my crew needs to be because they do as they're told."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at him.

Syaoran returned to his commanding captains voice, "You will report to the deck in an hour for deck swabbing duty. Do I make myself clear?"

Sakura gave Syaoran a smirk and said, "perfectly," she then turned around and walked right out the door.

Sakura walked across the deck ignoring all of the howling pirates around her she stomped down to her room.

Sakura was royally pissed off when she noticed Tomoyo sitting on her bed.

"Tomoyo!"

"Oh Sakura I've missed you! I've been coming to check on you often, but you were out like a light. Don't worry though I am going to set you up for your first day. I already raided the ship for anything that might be appropriate attire for you."

Tomoyo produced a pair of small yet still very loose breeches and a lightweight loose ivory top.

"I know this isn't the most nicest thing to wear, but these are good working clothes."

Sakura put on her new wardrobe with very little grumbling and headed up to the deck. Just as she stepped outside only to be practically blinded by the sun she heard a gruff voice cry, "Are you the lass that's to be swabbin the deck."

Sakura slowly regained her ability to see and she saw a tall tanned man with deep black hair. Her mouth dropped open for a fraction of a second before she collected herself and said, "Yes."

The man smiled at her, "The name's Derek, and you must be Miss. Kinomoto. Don't worry deck swabbing isn't all bad."

Sakura at a loss for words just smiled at him, 'finally', she thought 'a pirate who is nice on this boat!'

AN:

Sorry guys this chapter took much longer than I originally intended, I am sorry for the wait. Very little can tear me away from anxious readers however I went away on a short vacation and then when I got back I realized that a virus had taken over my computer! But all is good now… I think… I might still have half a virus in my comp somewhere. I wasn't as wild about this chapter but don't worry guys everything will get MUCH more exciting.

Lol I have a few ideas of what to expect from a couple of reviews:

Hmm… who is this Derek guy? Does Sakura actually LIKE him? What about Syaoran? When is Tomoyo going to say KAWAI!

As always I LOVE reviews. They really inspire me to write, now is the hardest time for me as well since I am not knee deep into the plot yet. I will answer interesting question on the bottom as usual and comment on others comments…

**rubygurl** and **cloverluck11** : lol I was hoping someone would comment on Sakura's sword skills and I am glad you pointed it out. Fear not because EVERYTHING will be explained. (Lol I can't wait to explain everything! you guys aren't going to know what hit you) but alas the explanations are a while off so in the meantime I suggest all of you take a close look at all of the small little things in these next few chapters that seem like fillers or unimportant details.

**mitthu**: another wonderful observation. Yes chapters one and two have a very very different feel to them. You are correct in assuming that everything will be brought together in the end, you will probably see more of the chapter two style of writing for awhile and a few chapter ones mixed in but in the end the two styles will mesh.

**Lanowen**: I am sorry this is a shorter chapter than the previous two however fear not because as the plot slowly creeps into existence the chapters will grow and grow and grow and soon enough you will be begging me for shorter chapters. : P

**SSgurl** : Maybe…….


	4. A Party to Remember

AN: Thank you again for all of your wonderful reviews . Sorry for the complete dullness of the last chapter upon looking back I really don't like the last chapter at all…., there isn't much action in this one but I would say that it is definitely more exciting. In fact I think I am rather fond of this chapter. I tried to get this chapter out as quickly as possible to appease the masses… so without further ado.

**Chapter 4**

_**A Party to Remember**_

**Sakura POV**

Sakura worked as diligently as she could, as she expected swabbing the deck was not the most exciting of jobs, but the view was lovely. She enjoyed the sea air and the beauty of the light reflecting off the ocean as well as the beauty of a perfectly cloudless blue sky. She was finally begging to feel comfortable with her new home.

**Tomoyo POV**

A tan blue haired man walked into the kitchen. Tomoyo was quickly distracted by the presence of a seemingly important man into her kitchen. He gave her a genuine smile.

"Hello, so I guess you're one of our new crew members."

Tomoyo's cheeks began to tint with the soft coloring of a blush. She shrugged her shoulders a little and said, "I guess so," and shot him a shy smile.

The man chuckled and said, "I'm Eriol. Your friend gave me quite a shock when she came after me, she can sure pack a punch. I must admit when you picked up your sword I was more than a little hesitant to oppose you. Do you pack a punch like your friend?"

Tomoyo with a glint of mischief in her eye wiped her hands on a dishtowel and said, "Well that's something you'll have to find out for yourself," she smirked, "my name is Tomoyo." She placed her hand out to shake.

Eriol raised an eyebrow in surprise at this sudden change and took Tomoyo's hand in his own and kissed it, "I shall hope that is something I will never be able to describe from a first person point of view. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Tomoyo shot Eriol a smile.

Eriol returned the smile, "I feel I should warn you though. The night after we loot we always are sure to celebrate, and are celebrations are know to be a little… wild."

"Meaning I should expect a bunch of drunk pirates running on deck later."

Eriol laughed, "Basically yes…"

Tomoyo laughed with Eriol, "Should I expect you to be among their numbers?"

**Syaoran POV**

Syaoran looked outside the window in careful observation.

A knock came at the door that roused Syaoran out of his lull.

"Come in," Syaoran barked.

A young pirate walked in, "Captain we've spotted a ship on the horizon."

Syaoran looked at him in shock, "Really? Well we'll ignore it for tonight for we must celebrate our previous success. But tomorrow we will begin our pursuit of this ship."

**Sakura's POV**

Derek walked up to her and said, "Well Miss Kinomoto you seem to be a very productive worker."

Sakura smiled up at him, "Please call me Sakura."

"Well Sakura, do you know what tonight is?"

Sakura shot him a questioning glance, "Please enlighten me…."

"After every successful ship loot we have, we have a celebration the next night in honor of all of our new wealth."

"So that means there is going to be a party tonight? Sounds fun."

Derek smiled, "It will be now that your here. Don't worry you'll enjoy yourself, I'll make sure of it."

**Tomoyo POV**

Tomoyo walked up on to deck and up to Eriol with a smirk she said, "Don't worry with all the rum there is, everyone on deck will be able to get drunk five times."

Eriol laughed, "Does that count include you?"

Tomoyo laughed, "Could you point me to the Captain."

Eriol pointed to Syaoran's cabin.

Tomoyo waved goodbye to Eriol and walked into the room, "Captain, we are sufficiently stocked up and prepared for tonight's activities."

Syaoran looked at her with indifference and said, "Wonderful, be prepared the festivities will begin in an hour after the rest of the crew has finished their duties."

Tomoyo nodded, "of course sir."

**Elsewhere**

"My niece should be arriving in the next couple of days."

A refined man (probably in his late thirties) sat in his chair, "Well I look forward to meeting her if she has lived up to your description."

"I am sure she will suite your tastes in a wife."

"I hope so, after all we had a deal."

**Sakura's POV**

The deck was full of sailors drinking their fill of rum night had set in and the ship was lit by torchlight. She scanned the deck and managed to spot the person she was looking for.

"Tomoyo!" she called as she ran toward her, "This is so much fun. I have never seen this many people act so… free and uncaring before," She laughed.

"I know isn't it exciting! These pirates aren't half bad." She handed Sakura one glass (of the many she was carrying, "Drink up, and enjoy yourself."

Sakura laughed as she took the glass and took a large swig from it, "don't worry I intend to do just that."

Just than Derek walked up, "are you enjoying yourself?"

Sakura took another large gulp and said, "You have no idea how much so!"

Tomoyo looked at the pair of them and said, "Excuse me I'm going to go talk to Eriol."

Sakura continued to drink from her large glass of rum. Derek laughed and said, "You seem to be going through that quickly."

Sakura smiled at him as she downed the rest of the glass.

Derek handed her his glass and said, "here you can have mine, don't worry I haven't touched it."

Sakura accepted the glass.

**Syaoran POV**

Syaoran sat on some steps watching everyone drink. He did, as he often did, and used this time to reflect on the fight the night before. His thoughts moved to an amber haired girl who didn't seem to be much of a threat at least by appearance. How did this small scrap of a girl manage to defeat several of his men let alone one of them? He pondered it very carefully. His confusion and wonder grew the more he thought about her and her strange fighting ability.

He stood and began to walk through his ship as he gave it more thought.

**Sakura's POV**

Sakura laughed uncontrollably accidentally dropping the remainder of her fifth dink on the deck. She laughed even more as she turned to Derek and slurring all of her words together responded with a, "Derek, could you *hic* find another drink for me."

Yes Sakura was completely smashed, she had never been exposed to so much alcohol before. She had sipped wine from small portioned glasses at dinner parties but never before had she allowed herself to drink so freely without concern.

Derek smiled at her, "Okay Sakura, but first I want to show you something."

He grabbed Sakura's wrist and pulled her with him through the crowd of drunks and towards the lower levels of the ship, which were now deserted.

Sakura completely confused replied, "Derek where we *hic* going?"

Derek looked at her and said, "Shh, Sakura it's a surprise."

Sakura giggled, "I like surprises."

Derek looked around checking the corridor, then abruptly pushed her against the wall. "Good, I know I'll like this one."

He fiercely kissed her, "Sakura you have no idea how glad I am that you're here." His hands started drifting up her shirt as he started sucking on her neck.

Sakura was horrified and tried to fight but was so disoriented she hardly was able to remain standing "Please stop..."

Derek smirked at her as he began tugging at her top, eager to pull it off, "Sorry Sakura, but I'm having much to fun to stop now."

Tears poured down Sakura's cheeks as she cried, "Why? Why are you doing this?"

He laughed quietly as he grabbed one of her breasts through the fabric of her undergarments, "Do you know how often we stop at a port or town? Villages aren't to accepting of a band of pirates, and it isn't every day that a hot little number like yourself joins the crew-"

Sakura squeezed her eyes shut and suddenly his hands were off of her.

**Syaoran's POV**

He punched Derek hard, never had so much rage crept up on him.

"I'm sorry captain," he cried, "I didn't think you'd mind."

Syaoran yanked him by the hair and dragged him out of the hall. He said in a cold fury, "obviously I do!"

Syaoran tossed the man against a door and grabbed his throat, "This isn't just some whore we pick up at port! She is a crew member and

therefore your equal!"

Derek tried to pull of Syaoran's hand, Syaoran glared at Derek and said in an ice cold voice barely louder than a whisper, "If you come near her again I swear you'll be dead."

He let go of Derek's throat and watched as Derek scrambled back out to the party.

Syaoran scowled as he disappeared and headed back to where he left Sakura. She was in a heap on the floor sobbing. As he approached he saw her recoil in fear.

"Don't worry he's gone," he said calmly as he handed her his shirt.

Sakura slowly managed to pull on her shirt. Her water filled eyes looked up into his cold amber ones, "I wanna go."

He looked at her with a hint concern, "Can you get back to you're room by yourself?

Sakura nodded, but as she tried to stand she collapsed back into a heap.

Syaoran looked at her with pity and warmly said, "Forgive me if I don't believe you this once." He picked her up and carried her back to her room. She sighed and rested her head against his chest letting the sound of his heartbeats lull her into a deep sleep.

Syaoran looked at the angel in his arms as he reached her room. He walked in and gently laid her on her bed, her auburn curls framing her and a peaceful expression upon her face

Syaoran looked at her one last time before retreating from her room and shutting the door behind him. He walked back upstairs and was disturbed to see so many people enjoying themselves and having a good time completely unaware of what just took place. He scanned the crowd and saw just what he was looking for.

**Tomoyo's POV**

Tomoyo was giggling and lightly blushing, for some reason Eriol always managed to make her feel happy and safe. Her smile faltered though as she saw Syaoran quickly approaching her and Eriol. She looked over at Eriol and saw that he was also watching Syaoran's approach with concern. He reached the pair and said, "Tomoyo, Sakura is resting in her room at the moment. Would you please go see her and just keep an eye on her, also when she does wake up in the morning would you kindly inform her to report to my office in the morning.

Tomoyo quickly shot Eriol a look of apology for having to leave so abruptly. He nodded and she hurried off.

**Eriol's POV**

He watched as Tomoyo left, then shot Syaoran a questioning look.

Syaoran looked around to make sure no one was listening, "Eriol can you do me a favor."

Eriol noticed the grave tone of Syaoran's voice and nodded.

**Derek's POV**

Derek sat in an isolated corner watching the captain and his first mate talk, he scowled in dislike. 'I don't know what _Captain Li_ is playing at, but he is going to regret it….'

AN: And so ends chapter four. This chapter didn't have a tremendous amount of action in it but it is one of the first chapters that is going to be leading up to the plot. YAY I'm so excited. More answers are here

**Takumi Fugiwara:** lol you have also picked up on the bizarre-ness of Sakura being able to fight so well, don't worry everything will be explained eventually. But I will explain the reason why Eriol succumbed to Sakura's punch. He disarmed her and usually when you disarm someone in means that the fight is over because one person is left defenseless. Eriol had already declared himself the winner and let his guard down… (lol oh sakura… not many people will try to throw a punch at someone who has a large sharp metal pointy stick on them…. Hehehe) So the reason why Sakura managed to land that punch so well was because she took Eriol by surprise otherwise Eriol probably would have won… also Sakura (thought she) was fighting for her life and people are known to fight a lot more fiercely when their lives are on the line. Does that make sense now?

**mitthu** You are right there is a significance to the dream…. Although not to much pertains at the current moment, I would suggest that is something to keep in your mind….. BWA HA HA HA HA! Lol I would hate me If I were a reader, almost every answer I give says… just wait all will be explained. Lol but it will…. As the plot progresses I expect to hear lots of theories as to where you all think I'm taking the story….

**Lanowen** Sorry I missed something on your comment of chapter two. I wouldn't expect a lemon in the next chapter… and probably not the one afterwards either but fear not because soon enough we will reach the land of lemons where I am sure even you will have your fill. Also fear not I believe this chapter foreshadowed more action scenes in your future.

**pure hope** lol I appreciate your enthusiasm. I hope this chapter is up to your standards :)


	5. New Determination

**Chapter 5**

_**New Determination**_

Sakura woke with a sudden jerk, she looked around the room in fear. She was surprised to see someone looming over her.

"Sakura, calm down it's just me."

Sakura calmed as she saw Tomoyo's reassuring face shooting her a look of concern.

"Sakura are you okay? What happened last night?"

Sakura lowered her head in shame and anger as she remembered the previous night, "I'm sorry Tomoyo, but I'm not ready to talk about it yet."

Tomoyo softly smiled at Sakura, "Don't worry Sakura, I understand and I won't dwell on it, if you don't want to talk about it."

"Thank you for understanding."

"I am supposed to tell you that Captain Li requests your presence this morning."

"I don't want to me-," Sakura suddenly stopped, remembering a flash of amber. Was it him?

"Sakura, I know you that you don't like him, and I don't know what went on last night but I do know that Li found me amidst the party to tell me something happened and that I should go and look after you. Please go for my sake, at the very least."

Sakura looked up at Tomoyo and said, "I will go. I am just confused."

Tomoyo smiled warmly at Sakura, "Of course you are, now let's get you ready."

Handing Sakura a pile of clothes to change into, Tomoyo walked to the door of the cabin. "Sakura, you get changed and go meet with the captain, and when you get back I will have your breakfast ready since you missed it."

Tomoyo then opened the door smiled encouragingly and then left Sakura to herself.

Sakura sighed as she changed into her clothes for the day, she couldn't remember much from the beginning of the night. Brief hazy flashes of her guzzling down a glass and stumbling around were all she could recall of that portion of the night. Unfortunately she remembered very vividly what happened once she was pushed against the wall. How could one forget a feeling of complete helplessness?

At that moment Sakura felt a tremendous amount of self-loathing. 'I can't believe I was so dumb. Sure I thought I was being carefree but what I displayed was actually carelessness. If it hadn't been for... well whoever it was that saved me, who knows what would have happened. I never want to feel so defenseless again.

Sakura grabbed a brush and ran it through her hair. 'I will not allow myself to make such an error again. Ever since I was young I hated having people watch over me, guard me, and telling me where I can and can't go, and what I can and can't do. I have escaped that lifestyle and I have no intention of returning, I need to take control of my life and no longer be the dependent, simpering girl I was raised to become.

With a sudden rush of independence and strength Sakura took a last look in the mirror.

Suddenly she thought back to the events of the previous night. After Derek had started his attack who had saved her? For some reason she couldn't remember that part. Tomoyo's words began to ring through her head. 'hmm… Tomoyo said that Captain Li was the one who told her I was hurt, and needed help. Then that means… no, no it can't be. Some member of the crew probably found me and reported to him.'

'Still, if that is the case it was nice of him to tell Tomoyo. I mean he could have just left me to myself.'

Sakura shook her head in attempt to rid herself of the confusion she felt. 'Well it doesn't matter who saved me, because I will never need their help again. I will learn to stand on my own two feet and will not need a protector to watch over me every moment of the day and night.'

With a final resolution she placed her brush on the dresser, took a deep breath and opened the door.

Looking around as she approached the deck, she was shocked to find everything so normal. Everyone was bustling around fulfilling that day's duties; however she found several of the men however appeared to be distracted now and were looking towards her direction.

Summoning her biggest scowl Sakura glared at the crowd of men who were staring and with her voice icy enough to freeze over hell she replied, "What, never seen a woman before?"

She was immediately taken aback by the effect her voice had over the men. Immediately half of the men went back to their tasks and the other half stared at her in shock.

Holding her head up high and ignoring the remaining looks Sakura headed to the Captain's office.

As she walked up the remaining steps to his quarters, she was stopped by a young man who appeared frozen and was staring at her wide-eyed and open mouthed.

Sakura raised her eyebrows, and with mock concern in her voice and a playful glint in her eye she said, "Surely you have something to do today, other then standing on the steps blocking my path."

The man startled out of his reverie immediately jumped out of the way, "ummm… yes, miss. I'm sorry miss."

Sakura walked past him and rapped twice on the Captain's door

**Syaoran's POV**

He was pacing in his study when he heard the knock on the door.

He sighed out of frustration, "Come in." He knew that he would have to deal with this in the morning he just wished that morning hadn't crept on him so quickly.

The door swung open as the girl in question walked in. She looked very composed and confident, which was exactly the opposite of how he planned to see her.

Images of her the previous night flashed through his head, remembering how vulnerable, innocent, and terrified she had looked. He hoped he would not have to see her in that position ever again.

"Have a seat," he said as he gestured to a chair in front of his desk.

He swore he saw a flash of nervousness and a bit of hesitation flash across her face but the next moment it was gone and she was walking across the room towards the chair.

He sighed and sat down in his chair.

He looked up into her face for a moment briefly locking with her emerald eyes, immediately he was overcome with an immediate desire to break the connection and so he looked instead towards a stack of papers on his desk which he picked up and began to study.

Still looking at the papers he spoke to her, "Well Miss. Kinomoto in light of last night-"

Sakura snapped her head up in alarm and interrupted him, "Captain Li, I assure you that last night was a one time incident which resulted from too much alcohol and me foolishly letting my guard down. Which I do not plan to do again-"

Syaoran let his eyes leave the papers and asked, "Which?"

Sakura shot him a questioning look.

He continued, "Which do you intend to refrain from in the future? Letting your guard down or drinking?"

Watching her reaction he was pleased to see her slightly flustered and therefore allowed a debonair smirk to escape onto his lips.

Sakura was quickly trying to regain her composure, "Neither. Both were foolish and I have learned my lesson."

Syaoran opened his mouth to speak, but Sakura would not allow him and hastily continued, "I do not think it would be fair on your part to discharge me for one lone incident which in all honesty does not reflect on my ability to fight or lessen my usefulness to the crew."

She gave him her fiercest look as if challenging him to disagree.

Syaoran looked back to the papers in his hand, "As I was saying, In light of last night's events I feel it is my duty to remove you from the position of deck hand. I feel that if you remained in that position it would cause awkwardness and turmoil amongst my crew."

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that she would no longer be working with Derek. However her relief lasted only a moment, "What shall I do instead?"

Syaoran shut his eyes as if a sudden headache overcame him, unfortunately he had not thought that far. "For the moment consider yourself released of your duties until I can come up with a proper reassignment for you."

Overcome by a rush of anger and hostility Sakura fought to keep her voice calm (yet not very civil), "Released of my duties, _PROPER_ reassignment? What is that supposed to mean?"

"I do not think I can make myself any clearer Miss. Kinomoto."

Sakura jumped out of her chair. "WHAT, pray tell, am I supposed to DO ALL DAY!" she shouted in aggravation. "And what is PROPER supposed to mean anyways, knitting doilies for everyone on the crew."

Getting frustrated himself Syaoran stood up, "If making doilies is what you want to do right now then do it! When I said proper, all I meant was the job best suited for you! You have only been here two days Miss. Kinomoto and already you are turning my ship into complete chaos! Until I make a decision on what I should do with you, just stay out of trouble! That's all I am asking, JUSY STAY OUT OF TROUBLE! Do you think you can manage that!"

"STAY OUT OF TROUBLE? Who are you my governess? What job is _best suited for me_?"

"If I knew we wouldn't be having this conversation!"

Her face was flushed in anger, "I do not intend to sit around all day doing nothing!"

"At the moment, Miss. Kinomoto, I DON'T GIVE A DAMN WHAT YOU DO ALL DAY!"

"FINE!" she shouted as she stomped out the door.

Syaoran groaned as he slumped back into his chair. What on earth had possessed him to bring this girl and her friend back on the ship. He had a feeling he would live to regret that decision.

**Elsewhere**

Her eyes went over the contract once again. She put the papers down with a smirk. That brat is going to make me a very rich woman.

She laughed a cruel laugh to herself, who would have thought that the sister-in-law I detested so much and her children would be responsible for supplying my every comfort.

With a cruel smirk she thought, Poor Sakura won't know what hit her, neither will her parents for that matter. Foolish Fujitaka, so busy looking for his long lost wife he doesn't even realize what I have planned for his daughter. Not only will he not be able to find his wife, I made sure of that, but he will not even be capable of protecting his daughter.

**Sakura's POV**

Still infuriated by her meeting with Captain Li, Sakura stomped over to the kitchens to talk with Tomoyo.

"Well I DID IT!"

Tomoyo looked up from her work, "you did what?"

"I talked with the conceited, chauvinistic bastard."

"And?"

Sakura growled, "Well thanks to Captain Li, I have absolutely nothing to do with my time now. I am no longer swabbing the deck."

Tomoyo looked at Sakura. "I didn't realize you enjoyed that job so much…"

"W-w-well I didn't…. BUT THAT's NOT THE POINT! Now I have nothing to do with myself, I am now completely useless."

Wiping her hands off with a dish towel Tomoyo replied patiently, "Did he tell you to sit in your room and do nothing?"

Sakura shook her head, "Well he didn't say that exactly, he just told me to stay out of trouble and that he didn't care what I did with myself for the time being."

Tomoyo smirked, "Sakura, you can do just about anything you want. Why don't you walk around and get to know the crew."

Sakura immediately frowned, "Get to know the crew? The last time I tried that I… well…"

"Sakura it's okay you don't need to tell me."

"No, no I might as well. Derek, the guy I worked with as a deck swab got me drunk and tried to take advantage of me."

"I figured as much. Oh Sakura, just because there is one jerk on this ship doesn't mean they are all the same. Just try talking to a few. Fortunately at the moment you aren't drunk and are surrounded by other members of the crew so why don't you just make an effort. If they do all end up being scumbags you can take them out or call for Eriol or the captain and I am sure they will come for your aid."

"Fine I will try it, but if anything does happen I will not go calling for the Captain. I do not need him and am perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"Of course you are, now go out and have some fun!"

**Syaoran's POV**

"Come in," called Syaoran.

Two men walked in, Eriol and one of the men who worked the lookout.

The lookout appeared slightly alarmed as he looked at Syaoran, "Umm Captain…"

Syaoran glared at the lookout, "Yes?"

"We have lost sight of the ship we were tracking…"

Syaoran immediately jumped up, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE LOST SIGHT OF THE SHIP! GO FIND THE SHIP, AND DON'T REPORT BACK UNTIL WE ARE ONCE AGAIN TRACKING IT!"

The Lookout gave a fearful salute to the captain before running out of the cabin.

Eriol slumped down into one of the chairs, "A little harsh don't you think."

Syaoran looked up at Eriol in annoyance before looking back to his work, "Perhaps but it is effective never the less."

A few minutes passed before Syaoran looked up, once again, from his work and said, "Well, what do you want?"

"I just stopped up to tell you that I noticed we seem to be running low on supplies."

Syaoran held up the papers he was holding and said, "I noticed."

"Well what do you plan to do about it?"

Syaoran looked at Eriol closely, "Well, we have enough to last us a couple more weeks, If need be. So, First I plan to find this ship we lost. Then after we are done reaping the benefits from that, we can stop at a port and stock up."

Eriol smirked, "Oh… which port?"

"Well we seem to be heading towards our favorite city so I figured we'd stop there."

Eriol replied with a mischievous glint in his eye, "Yes I have been missing the fine city of Carouse. Surely you don't mean to restock and leave."

Syaoran chuckled, "We'll see, in the meantime we need to find that ship and catch it."

**AN: **Yes I know, I am really sorry for not updating in such a long time. I also am sorry that this chapter is not terribly exciting, don't worry the excitement will build. At the moment however I am setting everything up for the excitement you will get the adventure and romance coming up (probably sooner then you think)

I am very, very sorry for not updating this. Ironically enough I posted this story because I was getting very frustrated with authors who would suddenly drop a story I had been following, or would take a year between each update. I now realize that I had joined their ranks, and I will try to be better now that I realized what I did to you guys. The reason I took so long was because I am not entirely happy with my previous chapters and wish to rework them, perhaps I shall eventually. In the meantime I will try not to abandon you again and keep on writing.

**sakura-kinomoto-li-syaoran- **you are actually the reason I updated now. When I read the little note you sent me, It really inspired me to keep at the story. This is proof you guys! YOUR REVIEWS REALLY DO COUNT TO ME and really, really inspire me to keep working! And I actually do read them all.

**The Supernaturalist-** Soon, soon, very soon.

**Mimiluvbug- **We haven't seen the last of Sakura's fiancée/suitor/whatever-he-is. However, I think it will be a couple of chapters before we will see him again and probably several before he will actually come into the picture.

**Ayr- **Please don't hate me, but I actually don't think he is. I think Syaoran is a little too debonair, playboy-esque to be on the same level as her. I know this hasn't really been seen too much yet but then again he's been on a ship full of men so there really hasn't been much opportunity. In the coming chapters we may be introduced to this other side of him. To explain his treatment of Sakura during the incident, he actually isn't too sure why he acted the way he did. Fortunately me being the author I do know why… smirks easily As for your hint… well I am not going to say it is totally impossible cackle

**Pure Hope- **You're review made me laugh

**Mithu-** Actually Sakura's uncle is dead, the person making the deal with the man was her aunt. Toya is around you may see him in the near future, but I doubt you'll recognize him, this part of the story will be explained later, around the same time that a lot of other things will be explained. As to your speculations on Derek, it is quite possible . I will tell you though that Sakura's aunt will definitely not be pleased when she hears that Sakura is missing. Thanks for your review and support!


	6. A New Start

**Chapter 6**

_**A New Start**_

**Sakura's POV**

Sakura walked out of the Kitchen and looked around. 'How do I go about doing this', she asked herself.

She surveyed the deck and saw a group of men gathered around, she took two steps towards them before stopping and then turning around.

"Oh no you don't," replied Tomoyo who was now in the door frame of the kitchen. "Here, I will introduce you to a friend."

Tomoyo walked up to Sakura, promptly grabbed her wrist and practically dragged her to the group of men who were gathered around.

Their presence was immediately noticed, "Tomoyo," replied a blue haired man, "What can we do for you?"

Tomoyo smiled at the man, "Hello Eriol," she smiled at him before addressing the group as a whole, "Gentlemen I would like to introduce my friend Sakura."

Eriol gave her a friendly smile, "We have already met."

Sakura shot him a look of confusion before gathering her composure, "I am afraid I do not recall-"

Eriol laughed, "I am the bloke you punched in the face, if that helps any…"

Sakura thought back to the battle slowly recalling the incident, "Oh… right, that was after you had disarmed me. Sorry about that."

"I admit you caught me quite off guard. I am not used to being attacked by someone after I disarm them."

Sakura smirked, "Well then, in the future you shouldn't let your guard down."

Eriol smirked and gave her an ironic salute, "yes ma'am"

Sakura laughed and looked at Tomoyo. Tomoyo looking unusually flushed, suddenly it clicked to Sakura. "Oh wait, now I remember. He's the one you're always talking about right Tomoyo."

Suddenly Tomoyo went about 15 shades of red in a matter of only 2 seconds. She laughed nervously, once again acknowledging the whole group of men, "Well gents, I am afraid I have to get started on your dinner," Tomoyo shot everyone her dazzling smile. Just as she passed Sakura Tomoyo leaned in and whispered, "For that you can expect yours to be poisoned."

Sakura laughed and shouted, "Come on Tomoyo you don't mean that."

Tomoyo shot Sakura a wary smile and said, "If you weren't so kawaii as a pirate I might." Then she continued on her way back to the kitchen.

Sakura looked around and realized that she still only knew one person among the five people surrounding her, she shot Eriol a significant look.

It took Eriol a minute to catch on and snap out of his reverie, "Oh right, Ummm… Sakura this is Tai, Jin, Takashi, and Mika"

"Tai," he continued, gesturing towards a man who looked to be in his early twenties with startling blonde hair and grey eyes, "is the ships carpenter. After every battle he has to inspect the ship and repair any damage that may have been acquired.

"Jin here works as a trainer. He teaches new recruits how to prepare and fight for combat. Then when he's not busy doing that he checks our weapons to make sure they are still in good order. Other then that he mainly sits around and occasionally gets up to challenge someone to prove that they are not practicing enough." A man with black hair and blue sparkling eyes smiled and winked. His build was lean but muscular giving him a very agile look.

"Takashi is in charge of navigation and therefore also runs the lookouts. He spends most of the day in the map room or up in the crows nest." A man probably a year or two older then Sakura gave her a large grin.

Then there is Mika. He is just normal; there is nothing interesting about him." Someone Sakura presumed to be Mika elbowed Eriol in the ribs. Eriol laughed and put his hands up in the air, "Okay, Okay. He is really good with numbers so we usually have him down keeping inventory of what we have as well as dividing the sums of our latest loots." Mika gave a smile as if saying that's better, "He is also one of the better fighters on the ship."

Eriol then put on a smile and said, "I am of course Eriol, the first mate."

Takashi quickly quipped, "Which means he does just about nothing."

"Hey," cried Eriol, "I prefer to think of it as management."

The other men didn't try very hard to hide their eye rolls and laughter.

Mika quickly piped up however, "We do have to give him some credit however because he is the one who has to deal with Syaoran when he is in a bad mood."

All of the men nodded with agreement.

Takashi smirked, "god knows I don't envy him that part of the job."

Eriol laughed, "He's not that bad."

Sakura shot him an incredulous look, "surely we aren't thinking about the same person…"

Everyone laughed at this, Eriol the hardest of them all.

"You're right, maybe he is that bad… but he does relax sometimes. We just haven't been on shore in awhile; I think he is just getting restless."

Tai looked up suddenly, "Which reminds me, what where you saying before?"

Eriol looked around, "Oh yeah, I talked to the Captain. It looks like we'll have one more loot before we go back to shore to stock up."

Mika nodded seriously, "That's good because we are starting to run low on supplies."

Jin and Takashi looked at each other and exclaimed at the same time, "Carouse?"

Eriol smiled and nodded.

The two men immediately broke into wide smiles.

Suddenly everyone looked to Takashi.

Eriol spoke up, "How is locating the ship coming, Takashi?"

Takashi suddenly looked disheartened, "Well… we still haven't been able to locate it again. However, I think I might know the direction they are headed based on earlier reports from my lookouts. I am hoping that the ship should come into view again soon. I told Li that we needed to head northwest at full speed so hopefully that will pay off."

Everyone looked down. Sakura felt a little out of place, she had never heard of anyplace called Carouse before. She also knew that the men would need to get back to work soon and then she would once again have nothing to do.

She decided to speak up, "Can someone give me a job?" Sakura thought, 'okay well maybe that was a bit abrupt' as all eyes immediately focused on her. "Ummm… Captain Li said that I could do whatever and well I don't really know the ship all that well since I am new… and so I figured-"

Eriol smiled at Sakura, "Sakura, relax."

Takashi laughed, "Yeah of course we'll help you out. If you want you can follow us around and learn the tricks of the trade."

Sakura shot everyone a dazzling smile.

Jin walked up and said, "You better start with me though, all new recruits do. Especially since we will have another battle to look forward to," He shot Takashi a look, "That is of course if your lookouts can ever find the ship Takashi."

Takashi gave Jin a glare and said, "I want to get back to Carouse just as much as you Jin so cool it."

Jin sighed, "I know, we've just been on this boat to long. I love life at sea, but sometimes you just really-." He stopped suddenly and looked to Sakura, "Right, we need to get you trained."

He started walking away and turned around, "follow me."

Sakura hesitated for a moment before walking after him and shouting a few quick goodbye's to the other men.

After she caught up she said, "I do know how to fight with a sword. A member of the crew on the previous ship I was on said I was a bit of a natural."

Jin looked at her and said, "I saw you fight when we were taking over your ship. You weren't terrible but your performance had several flaws. You were good enough to keep yourself alive but in a real fight, were it a one on one battle with someone who knew what they were doing; you probably wouldn't have lasted very long."

Sakura looked down, suddenly embarrassed. 'Hey wait a second,' she thought to herself, 'didn't I manage to take several members of their crew out. I must be doing something right.'

Just as Sakura was about to voice this however, Jin continued, "I do however have to admit you do seem to have a raw talent and a few advantages that helped you and will probably help you again."

"For one, you are a girl. Everyone will always be underestimating your combat abilities unless of course they are in a position to know better or have seen you fight or fought against you before. So right away you will almost always have that advantage when you fight, and therefore will usually catch the opponent off guard."

"Secondly, although your technique is not at its best, in fact it was quite terrible. You were wildly swinging everywhere leaving you open to attack several times. However, you do have agility which is extremely important and is vital to all fighters. Another thing I noticed is that you have strength behind your movements, but almost too much. I saw you were often using your own weight to make a swing more effective. Unfortunately that is very unwise; it is that which is mainly responsible for your wild swings. When you do that you are throwing off your center of balance and leaving yourself very vulnerable to attack."

Sakura slowly took all of this in, "So how do I fix this?"

"Well, replied Jin, "We need to build up your muscles so you don't need to rely on you r weight to get power behind an attack. We also need to teach you how to read other people, predict their next moves. Besides that you need to learn some technique, how to fight without a weapon, knives, and possibly staff fighting."

Sakura's mouth dropped open in shock, 'I'm not sure if I can learn all that,' she thought to herself. Suddenly she thought back to her conversation with Li. 'I am not about to prove him right and go back to _Proper. _Who does he think he is? Well know what I'll show him, I will completely separate myself from simpering, dainty, proper Sakura and become something better. Someone who doesn't need to be protected and no one will be able to tell me that I can't do something.'

"Show me and I will learn it."

Jin smiled, "I have no doubt. I can tell you will be a quick learner. Despite your flaws I saw that you have good intuition, you know how to take advantage of your surroundings, and are determined. That's something that I can't teach so it's good that you already have. Now let's get to work."

Jin started by teaching her a few weaponless fighting moves. "I want to start with weaponless combat because it is not only crucial knowledge for any fighter but also because it will help build those muscles which you will need for sword."

He taught her a few kicks and punches, making her drill them over and over until almost all of her muscles ached. The moves he taught her were very simple but he explained, "It is better to learn simple attacks and have power behind it rather then to know several complex moves and have their results be less then effective."

During all of this Sakura refused to complain, she instead repeated over and over in her head as her muscles throbbed, 'I will not be weak. I will not be weak. I will not be weak.'

Finally Jin's voice rang out, "okay that's enough of that."

Just as Sakura was about to sigh in relief he said, "Now onto sword."

Sakura told herself to suck it up and keep going.

Jin had the same approach to sword combat as he did weaponless. He had her repeat the movements continuously 'parry, feint, lunge, thrust, parry, feint, lunge, thrust.'

Sakura worked seemingly tirelessly after what felt like hours Jin spoke again.

"Okay Sakura, you did even better then I thought. You still have a ways to go but you are improving," Sakura attempted to give a smile but only succeeded giving a tired nod and a weary smile.

Jin let out a bit of a smile, "You've had enough for today. Why don't you go to the kitchen, I'm sure Tomoyo could fix you up with a late lunch. If you're up for it we can continue to work on all of this tomorrow."

Sakura this time managed to give a genuine smile as she returned the practice sword and headed to the Kitchen.

Tomoyo was busy at the stove when she walked in. Sakura barely managed to make it to the chair before she collapsed in exhaustion.

Tomoyo heard the thunk and immediately turned around, "Oh my gosh Sakura, you look exhausted. Here let me get you something to drink."

Tomoyo quickly pored Sakura a cup of water. Sakura finished it in a matter of seconds before smiling at her, "Thanks Tomoyo, you're the best. Do you have anything I can eat?"

Tomoyo laughed, "Of course I do, just give me a second." Tomoyo quickly dashed across the kitchen quickly organizing a suitable meal for Sakura-chan.

In a matter of a minute Sakura had in front of her two biscuits and some cold chicken (left over from lunch, which she missed due to training). Sakura gulped it all down quickly, not wasting any time being dainty. She gave a sigh of delight once she had finished, "Thank you so much Tomoyo, you are the best friend a girl could have," before running out the door.

She realized as she emerged once again on deck that already the sun was going down. Still Sakura was not done for the day yet, she looked around trying to find something to do or someone she recognized. Suddenly she spotted Takashi, walking across the deck.

Quickly she ran to catch up with him. "Takashi," she cried after him. He turned around, it took a second before he spotted her and said, "Hello Sakura-chan, what can I do for you?"

She grinned at him, "I do hope you meant it when you said I could shadow you. After all I need to learn these skills somehow."

Takashi smiled and said, "Of course I meant it. I was actually just about to go up to the crows nest. It's my turn for lookout, you are welcome to come with if you would like."

Sakura laughed and said, "Of course." Just then they arrived at a rope ladder that led up to the crows nest.

Takashi looked up and cried out, "You can come on down Saul!"

Someone, Sakura guessed Saul, leaned over the edge and spotted Takashi. The man climbed (almost slid) down the rope ladder, and handed Takashi the spy glass.

He looked at Sakura curiously before directing his attention back to Takashi, "I didn't spot anything, sir."

Takashi looked at Saul with understanding, "I didn't think we would have seen anything this early, don't worry." He paused for a second as if lost in thought before collecting himself, "Oh sorry, I forgot myself. Saul this is Miss. Kinomoto, Miss. Kinomoto this is Saul."

Sakura looked up at a very tall man; he was probably the largest man she had ever seen. She stuck out her hand in a gesture of friendship. "Hello Saul, you can just call me Sakura."

Saul looked shocked for a moment before he too stuck out his hands and they shook hands.

Takashi continued, "Sakura here is shadowing me for my shift so she can learn the ropes."

Saul smiled but then looked at his feet when Sakura returned the smile, "Good luck Miss."

Sakura laughed and said, "I thought I told you to call me Sakura."

Sual looked back up (which was actually still down because Sakura was so much shorter than he) he grinned and said with just a hint of mischief in his voice, "Sorry, Miss."

Sakura laughed before heading up the rope ladder with Takashi following behind her. When she finally reached the top she looked down, Saul, as enormous as he was looked about the size of an ant. Sakura took a deep gulp before Takashi managed to pull himself up.

He leaned against the edge, "Here Sakura," he said as he handed her the spy glass.

Sakura took the spy glass before looking at Takashi, giving him a look that clearly asked what now?

Takashi smiled and said, "Every half an hour or so you need to look through that spy glass. You need to look from every direction looking both at the immediate water surrounding the ship as well as the horizon. Anything that appears strange or unusual needs to be reported."

Sakura did as she was told and did a very thorough search; however the process only took about a quarter of an hour leaving another quarter of an hour of waiting. "So this job has a lot of down time."

Takashi nodded, and then smiled, "But now that there is two of us we can talk in between lookouts."

Sakura grinned, "Alright then, I'll start… umm…. Where are you from, what's your history, how'd you get to be here?"

Takashi immediately went into an elaborate, heart wrenching tale. "Well I actually was born incredibly wealthy, the son of a lord. Unfortunately my family had been in a long term feud going back generations; everyone had forgotten why our families hated each other so much. The feud was with another noble family of estimable pedigree; however they were looking for a way to hurt my family as much as possible so when I reached the age of five they hired someone to kidnap me from my family. They needed to get rid of the evidence, after all no one would believe that they had nothing to do with my disappearance if I winded up in their dungeon, so I was sold as a slave. For seven years I worked for a family who beat me and treated me terribly, fortunately I had befriended the local book shop keeper. I would visit him when they sent me into town for errands, he was a kind old man and he took quite a liking to me. After my seventh year of working in that house, he went over to the family I worked for and bought my freedom. I told him how grateful I was for his kindness and he merely laughed and told me that I had brought joy to the last years of his life and it was his way of paying me back. After that I tried to locate my family; however after my disappearance they had left their old home. So in an effort to find them I decided that I would need to explore the world, search from the top of it to the bottom. Unfortunately I was a poor man, and poor men can't go gallivanting around the world so I figured out the only way to explore the world was to learn the art of sailing. However these days you need to have some special talent to recommend you to a captain. So I therefore went to a map maker who lived at the nearest port and asked him to be positioned as an apprentice, after much persuasion he complied. I spent five years learning the craft… however during those five years I became enchanted. In that town lived the most beautiful girl in the world, her name Chiharu Mihara. Her lovely russet tresses and chocolate eyes caused me to fall madly in love with her. However her family looked down upon me, I was a poor map-makers apprentice. My love was and is so deep for her that I swore I would go out and make myself something of myself so that I could come back and marry her. I took a job aboard a reputable ship, we delivered cargo and such. Unfortunately life as a sailor doesn't pay very well, and so I was afraid to return to my love. Then one day we stopped at a port, I had gone to the local pub to get myself a glass of sherry when a man approached me. He asked me about the boat I was on and what I did on it. Well I told him about my navigation skills and he explained to me that the navigator of the ship he was on had just died and he was wondering if I might be able to replace him. Well I explained to him that I am not one to just desert my crew, and then he told me that I would be making a lot more money. Well normally I wouldn't be so materialistic but my thoughts quickly moved to my lovely Chiharu and how I needed to prove to her family that I was worthy of their daughter's hand. So I accepted the position, well it turns out that I ended up working here, on a less then reputable division of the trade industry. But what it lacks it repute it makes up for in compensation. Anyways after earning enough money I went back to the town and approached her family where I pled my case. I told her family that I was now a captain under a company far to the east, with Captain Li's help I managed to convince them. My love and I became betrothed and now my fiancée is currently awaiting my arrival in the lovely village of Carouse, where I long to be reunited with her."

Sakura stared at him in awe, "Wow. I had no idea."

Takashi plucked the spyglass from her hand, "Here I will look out and now you tell me your story."

It took Sakura a few moments to recover from Takashi's story, "Umm, well… it isn't nearly as exciting as yours."

"That's okay, history is history."

"Okay well, I grew up in Japan. I don't really remember much about my mother, other then she was beautiful and would sing me a song every night before I went to sleep. While my dad would be working with other scholars she would take my brother Touya and I to play outside in the back yard. I don't really remember much, just being happy. Anyways when I turned five, my mother disappeared. My entire family was devastated; my mom's sister came to live with us to help us through the hard times. Two months after my mothers disappearance my father took off to find her. It was decided that my brother who was then thirteen was old enough to be sent away for school and my aunt would take care of my training to become a lady. My father wrote often and my brother would come home and visit during the summer months when school was out-

**Flashback**

Ten year old Sakura sat at the window sill curls bouncing wildly as she was practically jumping up and down in her seat.

"Oh Auntie, Touya will be home any moment, I've missed him so."

"Sakura," came a stern voice, "You are making a fool of yourself, bouncing in your seat like that. This is not the proper conduct of a lady."

Sakura tried to collect herself but was still glowing with excitement.

"Do you think he'll get me something? He always brings me home a present and this year I'm old enough to give him a present too. I am going to give him the cushion I made with my embroidery of the goose on it. I hope he likes it. I am so happy to see him won't even mind if he calls me a kaiju!"

"Sakura I demand you cease your nonsensical babble this instant, he will be home soon enough."

Unfortunately several hours later he still had not arrived. He had still not shown up the next day nor the day after.

It was on the third day after her brother was supposed to have arrived that a messenger came to the door.

Sakura's aunt answered the door but Sakura was listening.

"Miss," said the messenger I bring news of, he looked at his sheet, "Touya Kinomoto."

Sakura immediately ran out from her hiding spot, "He's alright isn't he?" she cried. "I knew he would send someone to tell us he was delayed," she looked up at the man expectantly, "When will he be arriving?"

The man looked towards Sakura's aunt hesitantly, "Well how fares my nephew?" she snapped.

The man looked towards his feet, "Your nephew is dead miss. The ship he was on was attacked. There were no survivors."

Sakura looked up at the man in horror, "No it's not true," she cried. "You're lying! Where is my brother, where is Touya?" Sakura burst into angry sobs. "It can't be true!"

Sakura's aunt looked shocked but quickly reprimanded Sakura, "This is no time to make a scene. Go up to your room."

Sakura sank to the floor in tears, "SAKURA," cried her aunt, "Go up to your room this INSTANT!"

**End Flashback**

"Anyways after my brother died, my father sank into even further depression he had lost my mom and now my brother. He stopped writing. When I turned sixteen my aunt started trying to fix me up with an eligible man, I was actually on my way to meet the latest match she had set up before our ship was attacked. Now, I am here."

Takashi looked over at her, for once with a serious face, "I'm sorry for your loss."

Sakura gave him a smile, "It is no big deal, It's not as if this all happened yesterday. Now I am here and am the happiest I have been in a long time."

Takashi handed her the spy glass, "Your turn."

Sakura took the spy glass and began to survey the area. It was beginning to get dark soon things would be hard to see. After looking at the nearby water, Takashi had explained that you needed to do this incase there was a hard to spot coral reef or similar embankment which could damage the ship, she began to search towards the outer edges of the current visibility.

'What is that strange dot to the north?' she thought. She tried to get a better look, but all she saw was a strange dot bobbing up and down in the waves to the north.

"Takashi," she said still looking through the spy glass, "What is that little dot over there to the north?"

Takashi got up abruptly, "What dot?" he asked taking the spy glass.

Sakura pointed to it at Takashi looked through the glass, "That one up there, do you see it? It's a long way off."

Takashi turned around and gave Sakura a look of absolute incredulous; he then broke out into a wide grin. "Sakura, I believe we just found our missing ship."

"Shall I give you the honor of telling our Captain the good news."

Sakura laughed, "I would be delighted. How soon can we catch up to it?"

Takashi looked thoughtful for a moment, "This one is a long ways off, and we now have been going too far west. I think it will be at least two days, if the weather permits."

Sakura was already heading down the rope ladder. As she finished her climb down she felt a tremendous amount of pride, 'I found what everyone else has been looking for,' she thought, 'he has to give me some respect for that.'

Sakura gave a quick knock on Syaoran's door before walking in.

"Captain Li," she said in a very business like manner.

"Oh you again, what now?" he asked.

"We found the ship; we should be there in two days time if the weather permits."

Syaoran looked up in shock, "What do you mean you found the ship?"

"I meant exactly what I said. The ship is on the far north horizon."

"Who spotted it, Takashi, Saul, Levis?"

"Actually it was me, captain."

"You spotted it?"

"Yes sir."

He stared at her for a few seconds at a loss for words.

She suddenly had a mischievous thought. "Oh I am sorry sir, because I was doing look out duty I was unable to get any doilies made for your office. However if the lack of ornamentation in your office, is too irksome then I will be sure to dedicate the whole of my day tomorrow to making it the equivalent of any ladies parlor."

Syaoran looked momentarily stunned before letting out a low chuckle, "Who knew you could be so brazen, Miss Kinomoto?"

Sakura felt a blush creep onto her cheeks, she fought her hardest to keep it down. Who knew the man would be so attractive when he laughed.

"Well don't distress about my lack of doilies at this moment, we can put those on hold. For now tell Takashi to move his ass and catch that ship."

Sakura gave a bit of a smirk as well as a mocking curtsy before she hurried out to Takashi to deliver the message.

AN: LA! Another chapter done, wow longest chapter yet. At the moment I am actually quite tired and will therefore keep it short. I updated this quickly to make my absence up to you guys. I must admit the amount of last chapters reviews was quite depressing, but never mind. This is a great chapter and the next will be even better. I think I have covered quite a lot of ground on this chapter and it will only get better from here.

Actually the SxS moment in this chapter (if you can call it that) wasn't the one I referred to before (on my profile) since this chapter got so long I had to postpone it to the next chapter.

Hope you enjoyed! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! OR I GET DEPRESSED AND CRY CUZ NO ONE LIKES MY STORY : )


	7. AN

AN: Im soooo sorry for doing this to you guys.. If there is one thing I hate its when I get all excited thinking an author is updating their story only to find them leaving a long authors note.

Well here it is: I am sorry, I have been a bad author and haven't updated. There is a reasoning for this though, and its not just being busy because I can write like crazy even when busy. I know where the story is going, I know whats happening next, my computer is still working, I have most of the next chapter done, so its not the usual reasons. The reason is that I hate hate hate the beginning of the story, everytime I think about the story or try to get some work done I think of those chapters and how much I don't like them.

Therefore, in order to update quicker and not abandon this story, I am redoing them. But I really don't want it to be associated with this mess... even though some stuff will be the same. Therefore I am trying to decide either to delete this story and just start over with the same title, but since I know some people have marked this story id # as one to be watched I don't want you to have to look all over for the new story (under the same title).

So I wanted to leave an authors note to all of you so that you know this one will be moving to a new home. I will keep this version up for awhile until I re-do the chapters I want and then will get back to work. I know this sounds long and painful but I guarantee I will work hard and fast for you all so that I can get on with the story.

I ask only one thing from you guys for working fast, please read and review the new chapters. They will not be the same as the original ones, I mean seriously it will be more than just grammar changes. So please be nice and review for me, please please please. 

Sorry If anyone thought this was a brand new chapter… its not, but hopefully the new one is not far off. Thank you so much if you actually read this far. I love all of my fans very much and am sorry I neglected you for so long.


	8. Stormy Times

**Chapter 7**

**_Stormy Times _**

**AN:** Here I am again, another chapter, which I hope will prompt all of you to love me, and therefore review. Another thing that has been bothering me recently is that I don't really like the summary I have listed for the story so I am holding a **_CONTEST_**! _Write me with your idea for a new summary for the story_.

The winner will get to choose their prize from either:

**A)** Name a new character

**B)** Have a character named after them

**C)** Have me personally email them the new chapters I write before ANYONE else gets to see them or

**D)** I will write a one-shot in their honor.

(these other prizes I might give away for another contest later)

**Sakura's POV**

It was still dark when Sakura awoke the next morning, although she usually enjoyed sleeping as long as she could she told herself that today she wanted to get up early.

The previous night Sakura decided that she wanted to practice the combat skills she had learned from Jin before she met with him again, after all practice makes perfect. She originally thought about practicing the night before or in the morning after breakfast, but she decided against it since she preferred to practice in private rather then in the view of the rest of the crew.

So Sakura crawled out of her bed and quickly changed into breaches and a top. She looked in the mirror before tying her hair back with a leather tie.

She grabbed her practice sword and ran out the door of her cabin onto the abandoned deck.

Looking around she was amazed by the beauty of the sea at sunrise. Sighing she tore herself from the vision in front of here and began to focus on her practice.

She stretched quickly to help prevent injuries, and then began to work on her unarmed combat.

**Syaoran's POV**

Syaoran had always been an early riser. When he was young he was forced to wake up every morning at the crack of dawn to train. Well, as the saying goes Old habits die hard and this wasn't any exception.

As was routine for Syaoran he woke up early before the rest of the crew, and headed to the deck for his daily training. However, Syaoran received a surprise as he reached his destination. The deck which was usually abandoned at this time of morning now occupied a girl who was ferociously kicking and punching.

He watched the girl with amusement. Her emerald eyes were focused on her invisible targets, and her hair was escaping the tie which bound it. He saw passion and fire in every one of her movements. This was the girl who fascinated him to no end, this was also the girl who annoyed the hell out of him, he had no idea what to do with her.

"You need to ground yourself."

**Sakura's POV**

Sakura jumped, scared out of her wits by the voice behind her. Recovering herself she turned around only to be staring directly into a pair of deep amber eyes.

Suddenly Sakura found herself incredibly embarrassed and nervous. "Oh, uh- hello Captain Li, I-I didn't expect to see you this morning."

"Good morning Miss. Kinomoto. As I said before you need to ground your movements."

Sakura flushed with embarrassment, and said, "Oh alright" without having the faintest idea what he was talking about.

She was about to get back into stance when she noticed he was still watching her. She became flustered and shot him a look that said don't watch.

His response was, "Well, try again."

Sakura went through her sequence of kicks and punches again.

"No, No, No," said Syaoran. "Miss. Kinomoto that is exactly the same as last time. Stop throwing your body weight into your movements, you need to ground yourself."

Suddenly Syaoran walked forward closing the distance between them and held onto her shoulders (from behind).

"Your posture can't ever change, when you throw your weight into the attacks you are slowed down, you are set off balance and you lose valuable time recovering which the opponent might choose to strike during. Don't throw yourself into your attacks; let the muscles do all the work. Your posture should never change, and never give your next move away. Now try it again."

With Syaoran's grip still on her shoulders she began the sequence again. This time through was significantly harder as every time she did a move she could feel his arms pulling her back into stance.

Sakura hadn't noticed how often she had broken her form and stance to add a little extra to a punch or kick. After finishing the sequence, she frowned in thought. She would need to train even harder to bring up her strength to the level it would need to be for a fight.

Syaoran let go of her shoulders and gave her a knowing look, "It's hard isn't it. You'll need to train for a while until you stop relying on that, the hardest part about training now is you will have a hard time telling when you are doing it and when you aren't. I'll help you out 3 more times through the sequence just so you can get the feel for it, and then I am going to start my morning workout.

Sakura turned around and gave him a small smile of thanks before turning around again and beginning the sequence. The second time through the sequence was as rough as the first, however Sakura paid very close attention to the muscle groups she needed to be using and focusing on keeping her feet grounded into the floor and having that core strength to keep her in balance.

By the fourth time through the sequence Sakura had improved significantly and Syaoran only had to correct her stance twice. After she had finished the captain gave her a nod before walking away into his own training space.

After several more times of drilling the routine Sakura picked up her sword and began to practice with that. She realized that she had not been grounding herself well enough then either and was trying to work her new knowledge into her sword practice.

She had never been so anxious to learn and improve before; she wished she could be so much better. She wanted to prove to herself that she was worth more than she had ever allowed herself to believe, she wanted to prove to Captai- …The crew that she a force to be reckoned with, and she wanted to be able to feel proud of herself.

When she worked on script, embroidery, and music with her aunt she worked hard to avoid being scolded by her aunt and to try to make her father proud, but her aunt would still scold and her father no longer wrote.

Suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder, she turned around suddenly and found herself once again looking up into strong amber eyes.

"You should probably head back to your cabin and clean up, the crew will be up soon and if you don't hurry you won't get any breakfast."

Captain Li was standing close to her, 'when did he get so tall' she thought to herself. She felt a blush creep onto her face as she noticed he wasn't wearing his shirt anymore. She mentally scolded herself before averting her gaze then she nodded in reply.

**Syaoran POV**

He looked down at the girl in front of him. She looked so innocent and shy, a complete contrast to the usual spitfire he saw in her, and even more so from the fierce determined warrior persona which she embodied not even a minute before. He was surprised that she had improved so much all ready, she learned faster than most of the men on the ship.

He noticed however, that her workout had certainly taken its toll. She was still trying to catch her breath as he noticed from the irregular rise and fall of her chest, She was now looking at the ground as if it fascinated her and her cheeks were flushed. Her rosy pink lips were slightly parted and he had such a desire to close the gap between them and cover them with his own. 'No, NO he scolded himself. I am not having these thoughts, she is a member of my crew! ...a very attractive member of my crew who I would – NO stop it!'

She suddenly looked up into his eyes and said in a breathless voice, "Thank you for your help. I guess I will see you at breakfast." She started to leave.

Syaoran suddenly spoke up in a very deep rigid voice, "I noticed you are improving all ready. I will not however be eating with the crew as I will be taking breakfast in my office this morning." 'To get all of these damn thoughts out of my head,' he added to himself

Sakura nodded and continued down to her cabin.

Syaoran scowled to himself, "I noticed you are improving already? Since when do I talk like that?"

**Sakura's POV (after breakfast)**

"So… that's what happened...," finished Sakura.

Tomoyo was silent for a few moments before, "KAWAII!" Catching her breath she continued, "that is so, so, so kawaii Sakura! The captain diligently watching your practice, and helping you, and not wearing a shirt; Oh and you were probably blushing! I am going to write this down in my Super Kawaii Sakura Moments Journal (AN: I had to incorporate Tomoyo's need to log every bit of Sakuras life somehow…). Oh I wish I had been there so I could do it justice, next time you need to tell me when you are going to have kawaii moments with Li so can log it properly"

"Tomoyo, lets get a few things straight. First off it was most definitely not Kawaii, I didn't plan to see him at all. He just showed up during my practice time… which I guess is also his and started critiquing my practice. What gives him the right to do that, well I mean I guess it's because he's captain and should be helping his crew but he wasn't really helping. Except… well I did get a lot better because of… but still… he had… no right… to.. and then he takes off his shirt.. which he had no right… although it wasn't bad… but in front of a lady… and well im trying not to be… and he was really nice… but still! No RIGHT and I absolutely did NOT blush! (AN: LIAR, Sakura you are lying through your teeth. I wrote it I should know)

"If you say so sakura…," said Tomoyo, "Oh by the way your late for morning practice with Jin."

"HOE!"

**Later at Practice… **

Jin gave a nod of approval as he surveyed Sakura while performing her drills "Wow Sakura, you have really improved. You are hardly breaking stance, I am very impressed. Now we just need to work on building up your strength, that unfortunately still has a ways to go. But who knows at the rate you are improving…. How did you improve so much, if you don't mind me asking?"

Sakura gave a half smile as she continued her drills, "I got up early this morning to work on everything you taught me yesterday."

Jin gave a jovial laugh, "Well that would explain it. You were out working on the deck I presume?"

"Hai, it has the most space to practice."

Jin raised his eyebrows, "Yes, it does. I assume that means you ran into Syaoran as well?"

Quickly losing her balance between kicks Sakura promptly fell into a startled heap on the deck. Sakura quickly became flustered, tried to get up but stumbled over her feet and fell right back down whereupon she said in a breathy voice, "oh yes, yes I suppose I did…see Captain Li"

Jin concealed a knowing smile, and looked up at the sky. "Hmm the weather doesn't look to good, why don't we end early today. I have a bad feeling about the sky."

Sure enough the sky was full of several large dark clouds in the distance.

Sakura gave a half smile as she slowly got back up to her feet.

**Syaoran's POV**

Syaoran sat at his desk greatly aggravated, the last thing they needed was a storm right now. "Okay gentlemen, you know the drill we'll need to lower the sails, make sure Tai is prepared and that the ship is in good shape. Finally, Eriol make sure everyone on board knows that we will be running into a storm and to be prepared for all hell to break lose in… how long do you think takashi?

Takashi was devoid of his usual smile as he said, "It looks like it will hit hard in about two or three hours."

"Okay, tell them to be prepared for all hell to break loose in two hours and to be well prepared before then. Okay gentlemen you are dismissed."

All of the men filed out of the room, except one.

"What is it Jin?"

"Sorry Captain, I just wanted to remind you that our new recruits have not been instructed in storm protocol as of yet."

"Oh I suppose someone will need to do that then."

"Yes. I believe that Eriol already plans to instruct Miss. Tomoyo on what to do, however that still leaves Sakura."

Syaoran opened up his mouth to speak but was quickly cut off by Jin.

"Speaking of Sakura she did the funniest thing, practice was going great and she was doing great on her drills and all of the sudden she became very flustered and fell down."

Syaoran furrowed his eyebrows in a confusedly concerned look, "Why would she do that?"

"Well I am still trying to figure that out, She told me that she had practiced out on deck this morning and I mentioned that she must have seen you and the next thing I knew she was on the ground."

Syaorans eyebrows furrowed even more in confusion. "Oh well I suppose if Eriol is talking to Tomoyo… then I guess…Well I could explain procedures to Sakura."

Jin concealed a smile, "Very good sir, I will tell her to report to you directly."

**Sakura's POV**

Sakura had just come out of her room again when Jin walked up to her.

"How fortunate Sakura, I was just looking for you."

"You were? Why, did I forget to do something?"

"Oh no, I just came to tell you that the Captain would like to talk to you."

Sakura visibly stiffened, "What? Why?"

Jin smiled comfortingly, "He needs to brief you on storm procedures."

Sakura frowned, "Are you sure we're going to get hit by it?"

Jin sighed, "We're positive, at this point there is no way it can miss us. We just don't know how bad it's going to be."

Sakura's frown deepened as she nervously said, "Well it can't be that bad right? Wait, why can't you explain storm procedures to me? Why does it have to be the captain, I mean I'm sure he's busy right now."

Jin laughed, "Well actually I need to start preparing, and actually the captain isn't doing anything at the moment so he's the best man for the job."

Sakura groaned as she started towards Li's cabin.

**Syaoran's POV**

"Enter."

Sakura walked in and apprehensively said, "I was told you wanted to talk to me."

"Oh yes, I did. Please take a seat." Syaoran was suddenly regretting volunteering for this, 'I should have had Eriol explain to Sakura AND Tomoyo.'

Syaoran sighed, "Okay, I'm sure Jin told you we are preparing for a storm."

Sakura nodded that he had.

Syaoran said, "Okay good. I just want to go over a few things, as you don't have any specific duties on the ship and am a bit of a floater at this point you don't have any preparations to take care of at the moment. Once the storm hits everything will be hit with chaos, which is why it's very important that you listen and obey all orders, specifically mine.

Syaoran took a deep breath before continuing, "Now since you have been here you haven't always shown the usual respect required to the captain."

'Not that I really mind' he added to himself. For some reason respectful and Sakura didn't seem to fit together, he preferred the fiery tempered Sakura anyways.

"Tonight," he continued, "You WILL follow my orders without questions, people who don't follow orders during a storm cost lives."

Sakura answered with a very serious, "Yes of course."

Syaoran sighed, "Good, well now that we've got that cleared up. I think that's all you need to know for now, once we get you in a specific position you will have added responsibilities at that time."

Sakura nodded and started to walk towards the door.

Syaoran suddenly got a wicked thought in his head, "Jin told me you fell down during practice today."

Sakura turned back towards Syaoran her face bright red and stuttered, "H-h-hai I did."

Syaoran did an over exaggerated sigh before he said, "Oh dear, well that doesn't bode well for the crew since we get into so many fights. I guess that means you just aren't working on your technique enough."

"B-b-but I'm working with Jin, and he says I'm improving," stammered Sakura.

"Perhaps so, but I'm afraid you aren't picking it up quickly enough. Oh well, In that case I will have to work with you daily in the morning. We'll have to make it even earlier than this morning if I am going to have to give you a lesson before I work out."

"Is that really necessary," said an incredulous Sakura.

"Hai, in a case as bad as yours I'm afraid it is, we are after all going to be attacking a ship in a few days time. What if you fall down in the middle of a battle? Then someone will have to come and help you, it will lead us to tons of trouble. Desperate times call for desperate measures."

"Captain Li?"

"Yes, Miss Kinomoto?"

"You are an ass."

"Thank you, I will see you bright and early tomorrow."

With a ferocious growl Sakura stomped to the door and slammed it shut.

Syaoran chuckled as he watched her leave; he had never met anyone who had amused him so much in his entire life.

**Sakura's POV**

As Sakura walked outside she saw that the storm had all ready begun the rain and wind had already started.

"Hey Sakura," Tai called, "Do you think you could give me some help here?"

"Oh yeah sure," Sakura walked over to Tai.

"I'm trying to reinforce parts of the railing that have been damaged before, could you give me a hand. It's taking longer than I expected."

"Of course," Sakura followed Tai's instructions and set to work.

**45 min later…**

Sakura flinched as she heard another crash of thunder, she had always hated thunder. When she was younger she used to crawl under her bed during thunder storms, as she got older she had upgraded to hiding in her closet. But now, she wouldn't hide, she had a responsibility to her crew. As the winds howled, the waves crashed, the rain poured, and the thunder boomed Sakura sat furiously reinforcing the railings. The rain mixing with her tears of fear. Waves were crashing onto the deck and everyone was running around furiously to finish uncompleted tasks and seek cover.

"SAKURA," called Tai, "What are you still doing you need to get inside. It's not safe out here."

"B-b-but I haven't finished yet, a-a-and ACHOO."

"Sakura, I am ordering you to seek cover, NOW! It's not safe."

"O-Okay," said Sakura sniffling. She had almost reached the stairs when… CRACK

Sakura froze in place tears covering her cheeks, she had never been so afraid before. She tried tokeep moving but her legs wouldn't let her. She could see the waves crashing on the deck were getting bigger and bigger.

"KINOMOTO WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STILL DOING ON DECK!"

Sakura saw Captain Li standing right in front of her but she could still not manage to move her feet.

A large wave crashed into the side of the boat jerking it to the side.

Sakura stumbled forward right into Syaoran's chest.

CRACK

Sakura unable to help herself grabbed onto Syaoran's shirt and started crying into it, "I'm sorry I'm trying, I jus- I just c-c-cant move!"

Syaoran was startled but wrapped his arms around her out of instinct, "you need to get cover Sakura the deck isn't safe."

Sakura continued to cry into his chest as the thunder cracked above.

Syaoran quickly picked Sakura up shoved his back against his cabin door (which was right next to the stairs) and set her on the sofa. Sakura was still clinging to his shirt causing him to be hunched over.

"Sakura let go, I will be right back, but I have responsibilities I need to take care of right now. Stay here, do not leave this room for any reason."

Sakura let go and Syaoran hurried back into the storm shutting the door behind him.

**Syaoran's POV**

The storm was still raging as he returned to his cabin, all they needed to do now was just wait it out. They had taken every precaution, and people were standing by in case of an emergency. But all they could do at the moment was to seek cover from the storm and wait it out.

"Sakura?" Syaoran looked around for Sakura seeing his cabin empty.

'Don't tell me she disobeyed my orders even after we had that talk this morning.'

"h-hai?" came a soft muffled voice.

"Sakura? Is that you, where are you?"

"I'm over here," came the whimpering voice.

Syaoran walked towards the voice and ended up in front of his desk.

He shook his head with a soft smile before bending down.

"Sakura, could you please come out from under my desk."

Sakura looked up to see Syaoran's amber eyes, "No."

"Why are you under my desk anyways?" asked Syaoran.

Sakura sniffled, "Because you didn't have a closet."

"Well you need to get out because you're soaking wet, and you won't do us any good if you're sick. I brought blankets and some extra sets of clothes. You can change in the bedroom and I will change in here."

Syaoran offered his hand to help her up, and quickly led her to a door to the right of his desk. He opened it revealing a finely furnished bedroom.

"Here," he said handing her some clothing, "tell me when you are finished."

**Sakura's POV**

Sakura sighed drying her stray remaining tears as she changed into the dry clothes Syaoran had brought (they are the same as the ones she was wearing before).

'He was right this does feel better to be in dry clothes.'

A knock came at the door, "Sakura, are you done?"

"Hai," she said nervously.

Li walked in and handed her a blanket.

"You called me Sakura."

Syaoran stopped in his tracks, and paused for a moment.

"You're right I did, I'm sorry Kino-"

"No, that's not what I meant- umm you can call me Sakura… if you want."

Syaoran gave a small smile, "In that case Sakura you can call me Syaoran."

Sakura gave a half smile and sat down on the bed.

"So Sakura, what happened tonight? Why were you under my desk and standing motionless on the deck?"

Sakura mumbled a response.

"I didn't hear you," He said as he sat down on the bed next to her.

Sakura sighed and said a slightly louder mumbled voice, "I'm afraid of thunder."

"Well I suppose we're all afraid of something, all though I am surprised you are afraid of that. After all you are the girl who has no trouble jumping into battle with a band of pirates, openly defies the captain of a crew who is very ruthless, and overall shows no great fear of most things."

"I think it makes sense. All of the things you mentioned are things you can control, are

things you can fight with or take care of. You can't fight thunder."

Syaoran paused thoughtfully, "You're right, I don't suppose you can."

"So what are you afraid of?"

"Nothing."

"But you just said…"

Syaoran smiled down at her, and she felt her heart stop beating for a second. She rested her head on his shoulder.

**Syaoran's POV**

Now this was a position he could get used to he thought as he wrapped his arm around the girl next to him.

After a minute or so he looked down to see her asleep. He carefully picked her up, laid her on the bed, and tucked her under the covers.

He gave a large yawn as he sat in the chair in the corner of the room and closed his eyes, thinking of the peaceful angel in front of him.

**AN: ** ! WOW this chapter had lots of SxS moments left and right, this chapter worked out very differently than I intended it to with much more SxS than I originally anticipated. Well as you can see I didn't do what I intended to do in my authors note. I decided I'd finish the story first and then go back and edit it.

Well I wanted to remind everyone about the contest I mentioned on top. I am super excited and wish the best of luck to everyone.

**Miss Depp: **Dually noted. Thank you for the critique I will be sure to take all of your advice into account when I go back and edit all of my chapters.

**Gollummullog aka Tromedlov**lol first off I like your name, second I'm sorry I disappointed with the authors note I hope this makes up for it.

**Takumi Fugiwara** lol yeah I really enjoyed writing that last dialogue with Syaoran and Sakura, she made me proud to be a woman, lol. Truthfully I have no idea what Syaoran does, I think he just sits there gives out orders and people run in and say "Cap'n Cap'n we have a problem!" Or if we asked Sakura I'm sure she would say that he sits in there because it makes himself feel important to isolate himself from everyone. In which case I would have to respond that perhaps but I'm sure there are some people he doesn't want to be isolated from and perhaps that same someone is someone who he may be interested in being isolated with :D evil smirk

**KawaiiQuerida-chan**Huzzah! I did not cry thanks to your wonderful review, I hope you enjoyed reading it 

**mitthu** Oh man, I cant wait to get to Carouse, I think you will all like it to. Truth be told I wanted to skip this chapter and anything else standing in the way of that city just so I can get to it, but alas. I need a few things to happen before we get there

**dangerous emerald** You may be onto me  Yeah, oh Syaoran… that last chapter was a very fun one for me to right I really enjoyed it.

**Pure hope: ** you are a sweetheart 

Well I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. As usual I LOVE reviews. I really do read all of them and they truly inspire me. I love hearing what you guys think, and where you think things are going so keep all of that up. **And don't forget about the contest! **


	9. What Cannot Be Avoided

_AN: Dear readers. I stink! I can't believe I have abandoned this story. I feel you guys at least deserve an ending so I am going to forge ahead and give you one, not in this chapter though :D_

**SAKURA's POV **

Sakura woke up from the best nights sleep she had in a long time. She pulled the blankets closer to her not quite ready to wake up. Finally she opened her eyes slowly, only to remember that she was in Captai- Syaoran's room, and in his bed. Immediately she popped up, her eyes darting around the room looking to see if he was still in the room. She was relieved and a little disappointed to find the room empty.

Slowly stretching she climbed out of bed and went over to the wash basin to get ready for he day. After having adequately prepared for the day she left the captains quarters as quietly as she could.

The storm was over, but the sky still held considerable gloom. A little bit of sunlight was peaking over the horizon signaling that the morning had just begun. It was unlikely that the majority of the crew would be awake but she headed over to the kitchen to check up on Tomoyo.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!"

Sakura recognized that voice instantly and headed over in the direction of it to see who else was awake.

Takashi, Mika, and Eriol were grouped together as Syaoran stood glaring at the horizon.

Takashi stepped forward cautiously, "I'm afraid the storm caused a lot of disturbance and the ship we were chasing is no where to be found."

"Damn it to hell!" roared Syaoran promptly fixing his glare to Takahashi, "We just found it, how can it be gone already?! You better run up to that crow nest and find it!"

Takashi and Mika exchanged an exasperated look.

Eriol calmly said, "Syaoran, that is just not possible. Mika did the inventory this morning and we just do not have the supplies to chase after a ship any longer. We have no other option but to return to shore."

Syaoran scowled but remained silent.

"I would be happy to give you a list of the modified inventory, but the fact of the matter is we lost 12 barrels work of food due to minor flooding during the storm. We do not have enough supplies remaining to pursue any other ships," supplied Mika.

Syaoran's silence and scowl remained steadfast.

Eriol waited a moment before adding, "Tai believes we need to port soon as we need some parts to repair parts of the ship. "

Syaoran looked up suddenly directly at Sakura who was still lurking in the shadows. "What do you think?"

Sakura looked behind her startled, checking to make sure no one else was hidden behind her. Then timidly said, "me?" hoping to avoid incurring Syaoran's wrath.

"Yes," said Syaoran.

"Well…" Sakura hesitated looking at everyone, "I think we should head to port. If we are running low on inventory and need repairs we make ourselves very vulnerable. Who knows what direction the ship is in, we don't know when we will find it or even if we will. We run the risk of running out of supplies before we arrive at port if we try and catch one more ship."

Syaoran paused thoughtfully then looked back at the guys in front of him. "Sakura makes a point."

Takashi and Mika exchanged startled looks and Eriol suddenly looked amused.

"Yes _Sakura_ does make an excellent point, the reward is not worth the risk," stated Eriol.

Syaoran shot a quick look at Eriol, which Sakura could not interpret. Then he sighed and said, "Fine, we will head to Carouse and port there. "

He looked over at Takashi, "Go make the adjustments to the course and then report back with an estimate for our arrival."

Takashi immediately left and headed towards the navigators quarters.

"Eriol go inform the crew of our change of plans and send a few over to help Takashi. Mika, I would like a copy of the inventory, a long with a projected list of what supplies we will be needing to pick up at port."

The remaining two hurried off to perform their duties, leaving Sakura alone with Syaoran.

Sakura blushed, unsure what to do. Part of her wanted to run off after the other three and part of her wanted to stay close to the captain she had seen a new side of the night before.

Right then Syaoran turned and looked at her. "Sakura, since we are headed to Carouse I feel there are a few things you should know."

Sakura opened her mouth to reply but ended up just closing it as she stared back at Syaoran with a questioning look and a blush.

"Carouse is not your typical port, it is predominately run over by pirates and those who associate with them. I know do to your up bringing you have probably never even seen the rough underbelly of any port city, but this one is even more dangerous."

At this Sakura started to see the side of Syaoran she was used to seeing, "I think I ha-"

Syaoran cut her off, "You have proven yourself worthy of joining this crew, and I am only warning you because you have never been to a town like this. This is only precautionary as I had hoped to train you a bit more on what to expect there while chasing that merchant vessel, but due to unforeseeable circumstances that will no longer be possible."

"I have been in a fight before and I have been training with Jin everyday to work on my technique."

Syaoran gave a small concerned smile, "You have truly been making great progress. My concern is that many of the other crews do not behave as well as we do, Carouse is incredibly dangerous. Fights are regular, and many men will try to… they will use less than reputable ways to…. Become acquainted with you."

Syaoran had moved to look out at the sea but Sakura thought she may have seen the faintest shade of pink on his cheeks.

"Thank you for the warning Capta- Syaoran. I will keep in mind the dangers. But if it is such a formidable place, why does the rest of the crew seem so eager to go."

At this Syaoran looked straight at her with a wolfish grin, "Even the most reputable of pirates like to have some fun every once in a while."

For reasons unbeknownst to her Sakura flushed a deep scarlet and felt her heart flutter.

He leaned in close to her and with that constant smirk he drawled, "Perhaps despite all the danger of Carouse, even you might be able to have a little fun."

Sakura felt as if her heart would pop out of her chest and called, "Oh I think I hear Tomoyo, She- she- I have to see her… now." She paused trying to remember why she had been looking for her in the first place, "because she needs- I wanted to… the storm last night, I wanted to make sure she was okay."

Syaoran chuckled, "If she called now then can't it be assumed she is okay."

Sakura blushed harder and replied, "maybe" as she ran off to the kitchen.

**SYAORAN'S POV**

He still wasn't sure why he had teased her, but one thing was for sure, she was very cute when she blushed.

Trying to shake that thought out of his head he turned and walked back to his quarters. He gave a deep sigh, Carouse would be a very dangerous place and he hoped she could handle it.

Of course if it got too rough for her he would have to step in, after all wouldn't he do so for any member of his crew.

One thing was for certain he hoped he wouldn't be bumping into a certain someone during their trip, despite the rumors, which led him to believe they could be there. He had been planning this last chase and acquisition to delay Carouse for a while longer and therefore avoid any… unpleasant meetings.

**LATER THAT DAY**

**SAKURA'S POV**

Sakura hurried over to Jin at about midday. Once she got there she panted to catch her breath. "I have been practicing nearly the whole morning."

Jin chuckled, "Let me guess, you have been hearing stories about Carouse."

Immediately Sakura's jaw dropped, "What, are they not true?!"

At this Jin burst into a full out laugh, "I have no doubt that whatever you heard is the truth or very near, I was only suggesting that perhaps your increased work ethic was due to these tales. After all, why else would you work all day?"

A pout formed on Sakura's face, "I did not practice the WHOLE day," Sakura stated defiantly, "I also saw Tomoyo…" she completed with a mumble.

"Okay then, lets see how you are doing."

The next hour and a half was filled with numerous repetitions of exercises she had already performed a multitude of times that day. Sakura's arms and legs where aching as she finally wrapped up her work out.

Jin wiped off the light sweat he had acquired from training, "Okay, no more practicing today and don't practice the whole day tomorrow either. You should do a light practice in the morning and then come see me in the afternoon. I don't want you to exhaust and or injure yourself and if you continue on the way you have today you probably will exhaust and injure yourself. Truth be told, the only reason I even trained you today was so that you would be so worn out your muscles probably can't handle much beyond sitting in a chair."

Sakura sighed as she sat down on the floor dripping in sweat, "I'm not sure I can even do that, I think I might just fall asleep here."

Jin gave a little smirk, "well we can't have you sleep in the middle of the deck. You head down to your room and rest, I will send for someone to bring you dinner."

Sakura groaned as she picked herself up off the ground, and hobbled down to her room. She was sure she would be completely black and blue by morning.

She had collapsed in her bed almost immediately upon entering.

It seemed like only minutes later, all though it had probably been a few hours, there was a knock at her door.

Sakura, not at all eager to get up quietly said, "come in."

The door opened and Syaoran was there looking at her, then he slowly began chuckling.

"Jin was right you are a mess right now."

Sakura just put her head into her pillow and groaned.

Syaoran continued chuckling, "Oh come on, there is no need to feel act like that Nearly every member of the crew has over exerted them at some point. I actually came to help." He held up a hot water bottle and walked towards her bed. "Put this on your aching muscles, it will help relax them so they won't hurt as bad tomorrow morning."

Sakura took it eagerly, immediately putting it on her right knee, which was hurting the most.

She looked up at Syaoran, "You are right, I can already start to feel a difference. Thank you."

Syaoran looked away towards the door.

Remembering back to Syaoran's behavior this morning Sakura decided to even the score by giving him a bit of his own medicine. She smiled flirtatiously, "Did you help out all of the other crew members like this when they over exerted themselves."

Syaoran's eyes widened, surprised by this side of Sakura then decided to play along and grinning right at her he replied, "No, I only go out of my way for the pretty ones." And with that he walked to the door only pausing to give her a wink before leaving.

Sakura was once again scarlet, and thought, I guess he won this round too.

_AN: I think next chapter we will finally be in Carouse. I should be updating soon because I am starting to write the next chapter now. Please leave lots of reviews, I love them and they are truly my motivation to continue on with the story. Finally one hint for the future of this story… This whole story STARTS in Carouse :D_

_PS. If any one wants to help me by being my beta reader and ESPECIALLY helping with the first few chapters (which now drive me crazy) I would really appreciate it._


	10. Carouse

_**AN: I promised a quick update and I hope I supplied. I do have to say though that I was a little sad by the decrease in reviews since I added the last chapter for my fans :( I hope people are still reading because I only said I would finish it because many of my fans kept begging me to**_

**SYAORAN'S POV**

"Now that we are getting closer to port, I think its time to discuss how we take care of Derek."

Eriol sighed and ran his hand through his hair, "He is still in the hold, as per your request."

Syaoran nodded, "We need to figure out how best to kick the bastard out at Carouse. I'm tired of having him on this ship. We need to get rid of him and make sure he is not a problem any longer."

"We should probably let him out of the ship last, so we don't disturb the rest of the crew."

Syaoran set his gaze on Eriol, "Disturb?"

He nodded solemnly, "He is furious, he continues to slander and threaten. I have had to keep myself from cutting out his tongue just to keep him quiet."

"He will be released after the rest of the crew disembarks then given a reduced portion of the haul and a warning, if I ever see his face again after that, I will kill him."

**ELSEWHERE**

"That little tramp!" growled Desmedona. "Running off with PIRATES and ruining my plans." The Captain of Sakura's ship had arrived earlier with the news of the pirate attack and Sakura and Tomoyo's abduction.

The captain gave some big sob story of the crew being subdued and tied up as the pirates were stealing all of the valuables from the ship and Sakura valiantly fighting them off before she was taken aboard.

Well Desmedona would not let Sakura get away that easily. She pulled out a pen and paper.

_Sakura's arrival has been delayed, but you will have her and our plans will go ahead as we discussed. More to Follow._

_ -Desmedona Kinomoto_

She quickly addressed it, grabbed her travel bag and walked out the door. She knew where she could find her niece and this one little hiccup would not ruin the plans she had set in place years before.

Sakura's POV

It had only been a few days since they had decided to head back to Carouse. Despite her aching muscles she managed to continue on during training and now it was another morning of practice.

She headed out to the deck for her now daily routine, and as she had grown used to Syaoran was already out warming up. Their interactions had been minimal and lately when they practiced they did so in silence. She still blushed when she saw him without his shirt and quickly turned her gaze away from him.

She continued the exercises, which were so ingrained into her muscle memory she no longer had to think of them. Her routine was nearly over when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Tell Jin I said you are ready to start learning combat and strategy."

Sakura looked up right into a pair of amber eyes. Then looked down, "Jin keeps telling me that my muscles need more work though."

Syaoran gave a smile, "You should still continue these routines, as you can see I still do exercises to be prepared. You are now at a point though, where you are ready to learn some new skills."

Sakura smiled mischeviously, "So I will be able to fight you soon?"

Syaoran chuckled, "Not anytime soon, in fact you may never beat me. I haven't been beaten in a fight yet, if I had I would probably be dead."

Sakura got a determined look on her face, "Captain Syaoran Li, I will not rest until the day I am able to beat you in a fight. I will be the best pirate the world has ever seen."

"Well you certainly are progressing beyond average, but I will not let you win easily so you better be prepred Miss Kinomoto."

"It's Miss Kinomoto now? Well fine Captain Li, I will beat you one day and I'll try to take it easy on you."

"I look forward to it."

**TOMOYO'S POV**

"Here you go," Tomoyo said, handing Eriol a plate of food.

"Thanks Tomoyo, you are the best."

"No problem, but who knows about all of this?"

Eriol leaned in, "Only you, Me and Syaoran know about Derek being in the hold all though some of the other crew members probably suspect."

She shuddered, "I am just afraid of what he could do to Sakura when he is let out. I think it is very possible that he could go after her."

"Syaoran wouldn't let that happen, he's met many people like Derek before and he won't let him or any other man get near her."

Tomoyo nodded, "He really likes her, too bad they are both too stubborn to do anything about it."

"I think I forgot to tell you, He has started calling her by her first name and If my suspicions are correct, I think she is now doing the same."

"That's so Kawaii!"

Eriol laughed, "I have left out the best part though."

"Which is?"

"You and I are going to make sure that the sparks fly between them in Carouse, If they aren't together by the time we leave we won't have done our job correctly."

Tomoyo squealed, "Wonderful, I have been drawing up ideas for dresses that would drive Syaoran wild if he gets the chance to see Sakura in them! I will start making them as soon as I can get my hands on some material."

"Exactly, and I will make sure Sakura gets to meet lots of new men in Carouse, which will make him see red."

"Meanwhile, I will talk with Sakura about how popular Syaoran is with the ladies of Carouse, which I am assuming he is."

"Tomoyo, the moment I met you I knew I had a fellow conspirator."

She smiled warmly and flushed a light pink, then after a moment gave a slight frown. "We have a problem, how can I get a hold of the materials I need for Sakura's makeover?"

"Not an issue, once we get to Carouse the girls will help get everything in order and of course you will have a portion of the haul."

Tomoyo raised her eyebrows in surprise. "We never assisted in acquiring wealth from another ship though and who are the girls?"

"Inconsequential, you will be paid for your time aboard the ship as you have been working while here. Granted your portion will be less than other members of the crew who have been on the ship since the last time we ported. The girls are some friends of the crew living in Carouse, Takashi's fiancé, Syaoran's cousin and so on."

"Do any of them pose a threat to our plans for Syaoran and Sakura?"

Eriol shook his head, "No one in the direct group. There are definitely a few women in Carouse who would like to get their hands on Syaoran, but you can use that to your advantage while talking to Sakura."

She smiled mischievously and took out two mugs and filled them with wine, "It is nice to have a co-conspirator, isn't it?"

Eriol leaned into Tomoyo and grabbed one of the mugs, "Let operation Matchmaker begin."

**SAKURA'S POV**

Sakura had just finished her workout with Jin and was especially excited to begin mock fighting with him. He would present an attack and Sakura had to block it. The she would try to fit in an attack. It had been very rough to get the upper hand even in just a practice session but whenever she missed a block Jin would not hit full force.

He began talking about looking for when an opponent was vulnerable to attack and how to prevent yourself from being in a vulnerable position.

"Okay Sakura, you go rest, rumor has it we should be at port by tonight."

"Really?"

"Yup, Mika is actually downstairs splitting the haul right now so the finances will be all sorted when we port."

**SYAORAN'S POV**

He sat behind his desk as the door swung open and Eriol walked through.

Eriol handed Syaoran a pile of papers. "Here is the inventory Mika made up, and then underneath that is a list of repair supplies that Tai has requested. Mika has already deducted the projected restocking and repair costs and from that has a suggested division of the booty he would like you to approve."

Syaoran nodded as he flipped through the papers scanning their contents, "What is our estimated time of arrival?"

"Takashi says it won't be long now, the land is in plain sight and we will be porting soon. As soon as the distribution of the bounty is set, Mika will be needing your assistance with passing it out as the crew disembarks."

He nodded, and flipped to the final piece of paper, which he initialed, giving his approval. "Staying at the inn?"

"If we didn't stay there Meilin would be furious."

Syaoran nodded, resigned.

Just then Takashi ran into the room, "Captain we are aboard we are going to need all hands on deck."

"You heard him Eriol, go help round up the crew. I will help Mika prepare to distribute the booty."

**SAKURA'S POV **

Sakura ran up to the deck when they made the call.

She saw Eriol shouting out orders. She hurried over and asked, "What can I do to help?"

Takashi walked up, "We are actually all taken care of at the moment, the men are just dropping the anchor now, Just enjoy the view as you see your new home for the next couple weeks."

Sakura looked up over the side of the deck and saw a city full of lights, It looked a little run down though. Not nearly as nice as the town she grew up in, but she could here the faint calls of people in the street and some music probably coming from pubs and inns nearby. The fresh air hit her face and she could not wait to be let loose in the city.

Tomoyo came up behind her smiling, "Are you excited?"

"I feel like my heart is about to explode! I will finally be able to go where I want, when I want and now no one will tell us what we are and aren't allowed to do. We'll be free to do what we want!"

"I know and I can't wait! Eriol was mentioning that there are girls in Carouse who are friends of the crew, I really want to meet them."

"Okay everyone line up for your share," barked Syaoran.

The crew lined up to disembark as Syaoran began passing out every ones share. Sakura and Tomoyo waited in line until their share was given to them. Eriol popped out of nowhere and said, "Hey guys, you go on ahead and we will meet you at the Stolen Ruby, It's the inn three blocks up. You guys head over there, we should only be a few minutes more."

**SYAORAN'S POV**

He just finished handing out everyones share and turned to look at Eriol, "Lets do this fast."

Eriol was already walking down the stairs to the hold. Syaoran pulled out his key already following him down.

Derek sat in his cell scowling at Syaoran and Eriol as they came down.

Syaoran unlocked the cell door and threw down the bag containing his reduced cut of the haul onto the floor.

Derek bent down and picked up the bag then looked back up at them.

Syaoran scowled and barked, "Follow! Let's get one thing straight, If you in any way mess with _my _crew I will kill you, if you show your face to me again I will kill you." Then he turned around instantly grabbed Derek by the throat and threw him against the wall, "and if you EVEN think of going near Sakura again I will kill you very slowly and painfully. Do you understand?"

Derek picked himself up off the ground and started on the path to disembark. "I will play by your rules for now Li, but one day I will be the one to kill you," and with that he walked off the ship and into the night.

Syaoran frowned after him.

Eriol looked over, "I am surprised you didn't kill him that night."

"I don't kill members of my crew and you know that, they get kicked and then if they step a toe out of line, they die."

"Well we have to get going, Sakura and Tomoyo are over at the Stolen Ruby now and it would be best if we don't leave them alone there for too long."

SAKURA'S POV

The streets were full of drunks and it made her a little nervous but she managed to put that aside and put on a brave face.

Tomoyo stopped in front of her, "This is it, The Stolen Ruby Inn. Come on Sakura lets go in."

She opened the door and was amazed by the crowded tables and bar. She had never been in a tavern setting before and was completely entranced. Some ladies were sitting on top of the bar as if they owned the place as various men tried to flirt with them. Two tall men were sitting in a shady corner huddled over a map. There were many tables of men who were accompanied by lascivious looking women who flirted incessantly. She quietly sank into a chair at one of the few empty tables.

Tomoyo followed right behind, "A bit overwhelmed?"

"Yeah."

Sakura tried to shrink into the shadows just like she had seen others in the bar do. She surveyed the room again and saw the two men with the map had left.

"What are we supposed to do?"

Tomoyo looked over and said, "I'm not sure, most people seem to have a drink though…"

Just then the door opened and in walked Syaoran and Eriol. They surveyed the room and finally caught sight of them and started walking over. She noticed that the girls on top of the bar had hopped off and started heading over to their table as well.

Eriol smiled down at them as he took his seat, "Sorry to keep you waiting."

Syaoran continued standing as he was twirled around by a woman in a low cut red corset dress with jet black hair.

"Syaoran Li, you couldn't even take time to say hello to your cousin?"

"Hi Meilin…" groaned Syaoran.

The woman named Meilin sat down and the other three women accompanying her followed suit.

"Meilin, let me introduce you to our two new crew members, Sakura and Tomoyo," said Eriol with a kind smile on his face.

Meilin looked over at Sakura and Tomoyo as if seeing them for the first time. "Hi girls, I am Meilin, to my left is Chiharu, that is Naoko and Rika."

Sakura stood up and said, "wait I know you, I think! Chiharu… aren't you Takashi's fiancé?"

Chiharu groaned, "Well at least that part is true, Yes I am his fiancé. I hope he hasn't been feeding you to many lies. He actually came up with this whole tragic history of how he was from a wealthy family and kidnapped, he told strangers that one for a solid month!"

Sakura blushed a little bit, "Yeah I think he may have told me that one…" a little embarrassed that she had his story.

Tomoyo smiled, "It is so nice to meet you all! I have important questions though, primarily where can I buy cloth so I can get Sakura and I out of these dull pants and linen shirts."

"I know just the place, lets go shopping tomorrow," said Rika.

Just then Tai, Jin, Mika, and Takashi came from an entrance leading towards the portion of the inn, which held the rooms.

Jin snuck up behind Meilin and put his hands over her eyes, "Guess who?"

Meilin peeled his hands off and turned around to look at him.

Meilin flipped her hair back and with an indignant expression replied, "You wish."

Takashi sat next to Chiharu and Mika and Tai squeezed in my Rika and Naoko.

Tai looked over at Syaoran, "We took care of lodgings for the whole crew, our rooms are all in order. We have the top two floors."

Syaoran nodded in approval while Chiharu started yelling at Takashi for telling lies again.

Mika who had now wrapped his arm around Naoko fondly said, "We have also heard reports that-"

Cutting him off Syaoran replied, "Yes I know he is in town. I paid off the first person I saw, it is unfortunate but unavoidable."

"who-" Sakura began, but was promptly cut off by Eriol who leaned in and whispered, "I have no doubt you will find out soon enough."

Sakura grew quiet as she tried to think about who this mysterious man could be.

Rika and Tai were now whispering to each other affectionately, while Meilin glared daggers at Jin.

Tomoyo in an attempt to break the ice said, "What is good to drink here?"

Meilin seemed to perk out and said, "They have an excellent spiced rum, I'll go buy a round for the table, my treat." She stood up and then paused with her hand stuck out, Syaoran rolled his eyes and took out a few gold coins, which he put in her outstretched palm. Meilin gave a satisfied smile and turned around to go get the drinks.

"So how did you guys end up as crew members?" asked Naoko curiously.

Tomoyo launched into the whole story with a few interjections from Sakura.

Rika smiled, "Wow what an adventure."

Chiharu sighed and said, "I would love to go out to sea."

At that all of the men at the table began to look increasingly uncomfortable.

Meilin arrived back and started passing out the drinks. With a little edge in her voice Naoko asked, "Why did you say we weren't allowed to go onboard again?"

Mika replied looking extremely nervous, "we already talked about this Naoko…"

Chiharu piped in, "I remember the reasons, women are bad luck aboard a ship and that we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves in a fight."

Sakura downed a big gulp of her spiced rum, feeling uncomfortable with the turn of conversation. She enjoyed the taste and her whole self seemed to heat up from the inside.

Meilin growled, "Syaoran that excuse was bull shit from the start and you know it. I went through every bit of training you did when we were growing up. I am more than capable of defending myself! Also if there are already women on board it couldn't hurt to have a few more."

The men all exchanged wary looks.

Syaoran began calmly, "You make a valid point, but let us have no more of this talk until tomorrow at which point I will be happy to hear you out, but for now lets have one night of rest and enjoyment."

This appeased most of the girls although Meilin still seemed agitated. Eriol stood up and said, "Tai may I have the room keys for a moment, I would like to figure out the optimal room arrangements. " Tai handed Eriol the small bag containing the room keys. Eriol then looked over at Tomoyo, "Perhaps you would join me, that way you can select the rooms you and Sakura would be most comfortable in."

Tomoyo stood up gracefully and smiled kindly, "I would be delighted to accompany you."

**TOMOYO'S POV**

As soon as she left the room with Eriol she turned to him and said, "Adjoined rooms?"

"Exactly, Syaoran and Sakura will be one door away. "

"Wonderful," replied Tomoyo, "and I will make sure Sakura gets a refill on her drink when we get back."

With that they started picking out who would go in which room.

**SAKURA'S POV**

She had just finished her first glass of rum and without even a moments wait Meilin handed her another full glass, Sakura leaned over to her and said, "I'm not sure I should have another, I don't think I have a very high tolerance."

Meilin gave a saucy smile and said, "You won't build up your tolerance with that attitude. A few more won't hurt."

Sakura was a little hesitant but if she was going to fit in eventually she needed to learn to hold her liquor. So she took a big swig.

Syaoran was being unusually silent, but looked all mysterious and handsome in the soft lighting of the bar, Sakura giggled at the thought.

Eriol and Tomoyo entered the room again sitting down.

"Well we have the room arrangements sorted out now," declared Eriol.

Syaoran stood up, "It's about time you two got back. I think I will head up now. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow."

Eriol tossed him a room key and said, "Have a nice night!"

Sakura was finishing up her second drinks as everyone told stories about their adventures.

Tomoyo smiled and handed Sakura a third drink after that, "Aren't these delicious?"

Sakura nodded and began work on this third, unable to turn down a gift from Tomoyo but knowing full well she would not be having a fourth. The room seemed to be heating up and Sakura knew she was tipsy.

Mika got his key from Eriol and then he and Naoko walked upstairs together. Sakura blushed knowing that they would probably be sharing a room tonight. Then she remembered that she too was free to live whatever kind of lifestyle she wanted to know, she was no longer constrained by the strict rules of upper class morality.

She looked over at Rika and Tai as he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and lightly nibbled on it as she blushed.

She blushed scarlet, suddenly wanting someone to do the same to her, as she got butterflies in her stomach. Sakura stood up a little shaky and said, "I think I will head upstairs too now."

Eriol handed her a key and Tomoyo looked on and said, "Do you need help getting to your room?"

Sakura smiled reassuringly and said, "No I should be fine, thank you though." Then stumbled up the first few steps of stairs before using the railing as her guide."

She was flushed and excited wondering what could possibly be going on behind all of these bedroom doors and then embarrassed to be thinking such things. She just had a sudden urge to be held and for some reason Syaoran kept popping to mind. She found her room, near the end of an old creaky hallway, put the key in and turned the knob.

The room was a lot nicer than she anticipated, it had a big soft bed and a separate small room to get ready in with a big fancy mirror and a porcelain wash basin underneath with elegant painting all along the rim. She went back and saw yet another door, and looked over to see what was behind this one.

She entered and the room was covered in darkness.

Suddenly she was pushed up against the wall with strong hands keeping her firmly in place. Her heart was racing and slowly began to feel all warm and excited.

She looked up and saw the face of Syaoran who looked just as surprised to see her. He loosened his grip on her.

"What are you doing in my room?" asked Sakura innocently.

"You are actually in my room right now, my guess is our rooms connect," he replied. Sakura wasn't sure if it was her imagination or the rum but his voice sounded husky.

As if just noticing he quickly let Sakura out of grip entirely only for her to lose her balance and fall face first into his chest.

Syaoran knew right then that she was intoxicated and so picked her up and sat her on his bed.

"Syaoran?"

"Yes Sakura?"

She felt even more excited as he said her name and took note of his tossled hair and lack of a shirt.

"Do you find me attractive?"

Syaoran looked shocked and had to sit down too.

"Well…"

"What?"

Syaoran looked away as he noticed the neckline of her shirt was hanging extra low.

"Yes, you are very attractive."

Having an instant moment of bravery she locked her arms around his neck and engaged in a long kiss. It was completely different than her first one with Derek. Syaoran's lips were warm and soft, at first he remained unresponsive but then as if an animal had taken over he wrapped his arms tightly around her and began sucking at her lower lip. Sakura was in heaven and moaned loudly which Syaoran took advantage of now using his tongue. Sakura quickly straddled him continuing the kiss. She felt as if she had caught a fire and she would die if this kiss ended.

She rubbed up against him driving him wild and began to feel something hard. She had begun to take off her shirt when Syaoran suddenly broke the kiss.

He lightly pushed her away and said, "Sakura how many drinks did you have tonight?"

Sakura was confused but manage to slur out a breathy, "three.."

With that Syaoran picked her up carried her back to her room and dropped her on the bed. "Goodnight Sakura."

**SYAORAN'S POV**

He dumped her on her bed and headed back to his room, incredibly frustrated. He couldn't stop thinking about that sexy little vixen who had just wandered innocently into his room and then tackled him into a passionate kiss…. which was just about to turn into something more…. No stop thinking about her, he told himself. He walked over to his washbasin and dumped the whole thing over his head.

Try and forget about her for tonight and just go to sleep.

_**AN: I kept debating on where to end this chapter and I think this is the perfect spot. My goodness Sakura sure got frisky in this chapter. Next time we will be seeing a lot more plot development. I am extremely excited for the next chapter and the big twist coming up!! I hope you guys enjoyed and be sure to REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW. PLEASE, It really means a lot to me to have lots of reviews.**_

**TeenUren- **We lightly touched on what is to come this chapter but you will definitely be seeing more of the upcoming plot in the next one :D

**ChaoticPhoenix27-** yeah there are several different aspects to the plot, which will be coming into play soon. You may even be able to guess some of what is coming up if you read carefully hehehe

**Humbleblossom-paulina-** Hope this update was fast enough for you. Thanks for reading!!!!

**AngelEmCuti- **Thank you so much for reading, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter.

**YingFa07-** You are paying attention to good things. I haven't figure out whether or not that answer will be in the next chapter or the one after that :D


	11. Girls Day Out

AN: I am starting this chapter actually before I posted the last actually, so I really don't have much to add. I hope you guys have been enjoying the story as much as I am now enjoying writing it. Like I always say, your reviews really mean a lot to me.

Tomoyo was up bright and early, quickly dressing and heading downstairs.

Eriol was already downstairs, "I was just about to order breakfast, let me grab some for you as well."

He came back with large plates of eggs and ham with pieces of toast on the side.

She smiled and thanked him just as Meilin came down the stairs and plopped herself down at the table. She looked over at Tomoyo, "You wanted to go shopping today, right?"

Tomoyo nodded.

"Wonderful, I have been wanting to go shopping lately."

She paused for a moment and flipped her hair in a superior manner.

"I know what you two are doing by the way."

Eriol looked mildly amused, "and exactly what are we doing?"

"You are up to something with Syaoran and Sakura. I could tell you too were plotting something last night."

"Well we've been caught Tomoyo," he said with a wide smile. "Let me catch you up, Sakura and Syaoran are now staying in adjoined rooms."

"I don't really know Sakura that well, so I don't know how I feel about trying to get them together yet."

Tomoyo smiled kindly, "We completely understand, ff you feel differently later on let us know and we will be happy to include you.

Meilin nodded, "So what is the next step in your plans anyway?"

"A makeover for Sakura, she has been in mens pants and shirts our entire time on the ship. It's about time she finds something fun to wear… or at least something that fits a little better."

Meilin smiled, "Well regardless of this being part of a larger plan, I can't resist a makeover. Not to mention that we all have to go shopping anyways because the midsummer festival starts Friday."

The front door opened and slammed shut. A very agitated Syaoran started walking over to the table and sat down.

Meilin looked over completely unfazed, "Bad night sleep?"

Syaoran growled, "You have no idea"

"Well I figured while you are working on your inventory and repairs, I want to borrow Tomoyo and Sakura to show them around Carouse"

"and?"

"and maybe get a bit of shopping done too. So I will need some shopping money…"

Syaoran just tossed her a bag of gold without even looking at her, "This should last you for the day."

Meilin took the money ignoring Syaoran's tone, "for someone so rich you sure are protective of your money. I am just trying to welcome the two newest members of the crew in, and get to know them a little bit."

She paused for a moment then continued, "That reminds me, we need to have our talk today about your stupid women aboard the ship rule."

He nodded solemnly, "tonight when you get back from your shopping trip."

She smiled triumphantly.

Tomoyo then noticed that Sakura was up and headed their way.

Sakura still looked tired but smiled at everyone as she sat down, and then paused when she noticed Syaoran and blushed.

For some reason the thought hadn't crossed her mind that Syaoran would already be downstairs. She was embarrassed about her behavior last night and mortified that she threw herself at him.

She looked over at Syaoran who was staring back and looked as if he was trying to read a book. She quickly looked at the table and decided she would do everything in her power to avoid his gaze today.

Tomoyo smiled at her, "Meilin and the girls are going to take us shopping in Carouse today! Won't it be nice to have some fun clothes that _we_ get to pick out."

"I suppose it will be nice… my aunt used to always pick out my clothes. I have been getting used to the shirts and pants though."

Meilin laughed, "Oh Sakura, Pants and shirts are great for fighting but you should have some fun outfits too. After all, the midsummer festival begins this Friday and lasts the week so you will need to have some outfits for that and the big kick off party is at the Stolen Ruby on Thursday so we only have two days to prepare."

Suddenly she stopped and whipped her head to glare at Syaoran, "You _are_ staying for the festival right?" she asked accusingly.

Syaoran opened his mouth to speak.

"Lets make this perfectly clear, you are going to be staying," she snarled. "Syaoran you have missed the midsummer festival for the past two years! The crew and our family needs to be represented. Crews from all over show up for this and as captain you should be in attendance"

Eriol smiled evilly, "We have seemed to miss lately… in fact we would have missed the festival this year too if it weren't for that storm. One would almost think…."

Syaoran stood up and growled.

"…you were trying to avoid someone."

Syaoran swiped his hand across the table knocking over two glasses.

Meilin pursed her lips but remained silent. Sakura normally would have asked what was going on but thought the better of it.

Tomoyo smiled kindly, "this festival sounds very fun, think of all the outfits and parties…" she got a dazed look in her eyes.

All eyes were fixed on Tomoyo.

Sakura decided to help her friend out by encouraging the conversation. "I suppose it will be nice to shop for some outfits even if we don't get a chance to wear them here…"

There was another moment of silence, "We'll all be staying for the festival", he said in a gruff voice. Then sat down and scowled at the table.

Meilin beamed, "Wonderful, once the other girls get up we can start shopping. We have all sorts of things to take care of, dresses, stockings, jewelry, perfume, accessories…. It will be so much fun!"

Sakura sat looking at the table blushing slightly, wondering if she should have called attention to herself. Did Syaoran remember last night? She wasn't going to say anything about last night if he didn't.

She tried to listen to the conversation and only vaguely noticed that Rika and Tai were now sitting at the table.

She couldn't help wondering what Syaoran was thinking right now. She looked up to see if she could find any hidden meanings etched on his face, only to see those amber eyes staring right back at her with that same searching expression.

She quickly looked back down at the table, once again trying to pay attention to what everyone was saying but failing.

"Sakura what is your opinion?" asked Chiharu.

Sakura looked up shocked not, even realizing that Chiharu had come down. "I'm sorry, about what?"

Meilin was fixing her gaze completely on Sakura and then smiled, "We are trying to figure out what colors we should focus on for our outfits. Of course no one is limited to one color but we try and pick two main colors for our festival outfits. Midsummer usually features bright colors in decoration and costume, so to avoid wearing the same colors we try and pick out our colors beforehand."

"Oh, I guess I like the color pink," said a distracted Sakura.

Chiharu nodded, "Well I suppose that takes care of one of the colors. That still leaves one more..."

"Green," said Syaoran abruptly. "Her other color is green."

Rika and Chiharu looked surprised and then fixed their eyes on Meilin who raised her eyebrows and with an amused smile said, "I think green will be a wonderful color on you, it will match your eyes."

The girls continued to talk about their shopping plans and the cuts and styles they wanted their dresses to be while the men slowly drifted to another table.

The next thing she knew there was a hand waving in front of her face, and realized that Tomoyo had been trying to get her attention.

"Oh sorry Tomoyo, I am a little out of it today."

"That's okay, I was just asking you if I could design some of your outfits."

Sakura opened her mouth to speak but was cut off, "Of course I will use your input but it would make me so happy if I could put together a few of your outfits. I'm sure we can get some of your stuff premade in the market though so you wouldn't have to wait for me to finish."

Sakura smiled warmly, "Of course you can Tomoyo, I trust you completely."

Meilin stood up and announced, "Well now that we are all here lets go shopping, rather than just sitting around talking about it."

"What will the guys be doing?" Sakura whispered to Naoko.

"Most of the crew will just relax or go shopping. Syaoran and Eriol will probably spend the day going over paper work to figure out restocking and supplies though."

The town looked completely different in the light of day. It was bright and sunny outside with only a few remnants of the different place she had seen the night before. There was a man passed out on the street about five buildings down and a broken mug, which had been thrown up against the wall of a building and had glass shards below.

Naoko smiled, "It cleans up a bit once we get away from all of the pubs and head further in towards the market."

Sakura nodded.

Tomoyo piped in, "Can you tell us more about the festival?"

"It is so much fun," said Rika, "They have performers and competitions, then the last night is a dance. But that isn't for everyone it is only for men who rank as an officer or higher in their crew and their dates."

"Who does that include?" Tomoyo prompted.

Chiharu looked thoughtful, "Its difficult to say for our crew because Syaoran does not go by the traditional labels. Generally it is the members of the crew who have the most responsibility and are closest to the Captain."

Meilin groaned, "I keep telling him that Aunt Yelan will throw a fit when she finds out that the crew isn't even labeled accordingly, but he is too stubborn to change."

"Why is labeling so important anyways?" asked Sakura.

"It isn't as important on board because the crew all knows their rankings within, however when they port it lets other crews know who they are messing with. For example if a crew goes after someone of a certain ranking it is almost certain that his crew will retaliate," said Chiharu.

Sakura was surprised when she looked around and suddenly realized they had arrived at the market. There were rows of stalls and small shops stretched as far as the eye could see.

She was a little overwhelmed having never actually been in a market before.

"Lets stop at the fabric store first," said Tomoyo. "Sakura you can shop around some of these stalls if you want to. I'll just be picking out the fabric for the dresses I am making for you. "

Sakura was eager to check out some of the stalls and agreed immediately.

The girls walked into the nearest door and she began to look at the carts of merchandise.

She looked at a stall that sold compasses and navigation equipment. She hadn't had much contact with any of these items but enjoyed looking at them. The man at the stall kept trying to sell her anything he could so finally Sakura left the stall to look elsewhere.

Another stall nearby sold glassware of all shapes and sizes with various emblems on it.

A young woman was working there; she smiled pleasantly, "Are you buying a present."

"No I am just looking around. What do all of these markings mean?"

"These are crests that represent the different captains and crews. All important crews and captains have one of these that they use to identify themselves with others. It is a way of marking their property and prestige."

Sakura smiled kindly but did not have any interest in purchasing and moved on instead wandering from stall to stall.

She finally stopped again at a stall run by an elderly woman selling ribbons.

The woman smiled up at her, "Picking up your ribbons for the festival? Did you lose yours from last year?"

Sakura replied, "This is my first time at the festival."

"Do you know of the ribbon tradition?" the woman asked.

Sakura politely shook her head.

"Every woman wears ribbons throughout the festival and then before the last night she gives a ribbon to the one she loves. If he loves her back he will have it with him that night."

Sakura smiled, she did not think she would be giving away but it was still a fun tradition.

The girls came out of the fabric store with large wrapped packages of fabric. Tomoyo waltzed up to her and said, "Oh good Sakura, I was just saying that I needed some ribbons for your dress!"

She looked over all of them thoughtfully. "I think these satin ribbons would probably look best. How do you feel about these two ribbon," she asked holding up a roll of pale pink ribbon and another bright green roll. Sakura smiled and took the two rolls, handing the woman the cost from her change purse.

"Lets look at some of the clothing stores nearby. I want some new training clothes and I never get excited about making my own," said Meilin.

"Absolutely," Chiharu said. "I want some new clothes anyways that I don't have to make."

Naoko looked over at Sakura, "You should probably buy some dresses too so that you have some to wear before the festival."

The clothing store was farther down the street and Sakura was disappointed that they had no time to look at the dozens of stalls they were passing on the way.

The big windows at the front of the store displayed intricate dresses.

They walked inside and were greeted by a friendly woman who had her hair pulled back tightly and seemed very frazzled.

"Come in dears, come in. What are you looking for today?"

"Some everyday dresses and a couple of fighting outfits," said Meilin flipping her hair haughtily.

"Wonderful you guys will be easy. The dresses are up at the front and we keep the pants and shirts over in the far back corner."

Sakura was unsure where to go as the group immediately parted. Meilin doubled back and grabbed Sakura by the arm, "Its not often I find a girl interested in fighting and if we are going to fight this afternoon I intend on looking cute while doing it."

Sakura opened her mouth in shock "We're fighting later?"

Meilin rolled her eyes impatiently, "Of course we are, I've already challenged all the men and no one gives me much trouble. It's not often I get someone new to fight with."

She walked over and grabbed a pair of loose pants hemmed at mid calf. The pants were a deep crimson with an embroidered tiger on the lower corner of her left pant leg.

"I have had my eyes on this for the past two weeks," Meilin said tossing her hair back and holding the pants up into the light.

Sakura smiled, "Those are pretty. The only pants I have worn are for young boys and are just plain brown linen. I didn't even know there was another kind."

"Well there isn't in most places, women aren't supposed to wear pants, but this isn't just any city. Women fight all the time here, and we look amazing while we do it," she smiled mischievously.

She rifled through the rack and started tossing various items at Sakura as she struggled to catch them

Once Sakura's hands were full Meilin led her to a backroom where everyone was waiting with their hands full of dresses and stockings.

Tomoyo ran up throwing four more dresses onto the pile, "I picked these out for you since you were looking at fighting outfits in the back."

Curtains were set up separating the room into sections and she walked into one of them and placed all of her clothes down.

She proceeded to try on each outfit, which were all met with praise and adoration when she presented them to the group.

It was not long before everyone was leaving the store with their purchases.

Sakura pouted, "I've spent almost all of my share."

Meilin smiled merrily, "Oh just ask Syaoran for more if you need it, he is a complete pushover."

"Oh no, I shouldn't need more, I will just be careful with my spending from now on, " said Sakura with a fierce determination. She could not imagine asking Syaoran for money, she would never be able to look him in the eye again.

Chiharu smiled brightly, "Well I am changing into my new dress right when we get back. I haven't gone shopping in ages and I want Takashi to see me look spectacular.

Rika nodded emphatically.

"I plan on changing after Sakura and I fight for a bit, but at least I can try out my new fighting clothes."

Sakura smiled nervously, "I am probably not very good, Jin gives me things to correct all the time."

Meilin rolled her eyes impatiently, "Jin corrects everyone all the time. He goes on and on about what I do wrong even though I always beat him."

Naoko sighed, "Its only because he likes you Meilin."

Meilin glared at Naoko fiercely.

"You should cut him some slack Meilin, He is a really nice guy," Chiharu chimed in.

The only indication that Meilin had heard this was by her increased pace and irritability the rest of the way back.

The inn was still quiet when they arrived back. Only a few tables were occupied, one of those belonged to Eriol, Syaoran and the hundreds of papers they were pouring over.

Meilin still upset from the conversation on the way home bounded up to Syaoran, "Its time for our discussion now."

Syaoran looked up slowly trying to gather as much patience as he could, "Meilin I am in the middle of crew related business, we can discuss this later."

"This is crew related business too," snarled Meilin.

Whatever patience he had attempted at before dissipated immediately as he shot her a cold look, "We will discuss this at dinner."

Meilin knew that Syaoran could not be crossed at the moment, "fine," she sighed. "Sakura, our fight is in twenty minutes. Go get changed and I will meet you out back."

Sakura grew two shades paler and slowly walked away as Tomoyo followed after giving her assessment on which would be the best outfit to wear for the match.

Meilin walked away with her head held high looking the part of a queen as Rika, Chiharu and Naoko moved to a separate table to chat.

"Meilin challenged Sakura," said Syaoran breaking the silence.

"So it seems," replied a distracted Eriol.

"Why?" he scowled.

Eriol merely shrugged as Syaoran continued to dwell on the upcoming fight.

"Meilin was trained by the Li clan, Sakura doesn't stand a chance."

Eriol nodded not taking his eyes off the paper, "it does seem unlikely."

After another moment Syaoran growled, "What is Meilin trying to prove?"

Slowly Eriol set his pen down on the table peeling his eyes away from the paper, "Really this should come as no surprise to you Syaoran. Meilin challenges everyone in the crew, why would Sakura be any different."

Syaoran leaned back frowning, "she isn't properly trained."

Eriol gave an exasperated sigh, "She hasn't been properly trained by the Li clans standards, but she bested a good number of your crew and that should count for something."

Syaoran continued to scowl at the floor.

"I have every intention of watching this fight and the only thing preventing that right now is this pile of papers and your current disposition. So how about we finish up this last pile so that we can watch the fight rather than spending the rest of the night thinking about it."

****

Sakura had just changed into her silvery pants, which fell down to mid calf with shimmering beads sown in all along the hem. Her blouse was loose fitting and pale pink.

Tomoyo walked up from behind, "I saved a piece of ribbon to tie your hair back so it won't fall into your eyes."

"Well at least I will look good," said Sakura as she took the matching pink ribbon and used it to tie her hair into a pony tail.

"Don't be intimidated Sakura, you have a natural ability, I am sure you will do well even if you lose."

Sakura smiled kindly, she could always count on Tomoyo to be supportive.

They walked down together in silence as Sakura could not handle conversation and instead just kept repeating the drills Jin had made her learn over and over in her head.

Neither of them had exited through the back before and were surprised to see a large grassy area fenced in specifically for training.

"There you are,' said Meilin, looking completely comfortable.

She was wearing the crimson pants from the store and a well fitting black linen top.

"Feel free to warm up beforehand, no need to jump right into it."

Sakura nodded distractedly as she noticed others had already started gathering to watch them fight.

Chiharu walked over smiling, "Don't worry Sakura, you will be great."

Sakura's eyes remained fixed on the people who were gathering.

"Oh don't mind them, people always show up to watch a fight. Its some of the only entertainment there is around here," she laughed encouragingly.

Sakura slowly began to stretch trying to take her mind off things but still scanning the people who had shown up to watch.

Rika came up smiling, "You look fantastic Sakura! I told you that blouse would look great."

She managed a half smile although judging from Rika's concerned wave as she ran back to Naoko it may have looked a bit pained.

She looked down trying to focus as she stretched her arms across her body. Tomoyo could sense Sakura's unease and waved Jin over when she saw him come outside.

"Okay Sakura you have to focus. Meilin is an excellent fighter but she has her flaws too. Just remember what I have taught you, remember your strengths and use them to your advantage."

Sakura gave Jin a helpless expression, "But Meilin is a girl too, so why would she underestimate me."

Jin smiled patiently, "Sakura that is not what I meant. Meilin grew up with a strict training regimen from her family and would not allow her judgment to be clouded by something like that. I was talking about your agility. Meilin is stronger than you, there is no question about that, but you are quicker than her. Use your speed to your advantage."

With that he walked off into the crowd.

Sakura thought about it but didn't understand how that could help very much.

Meilin walked over smiling, "Its about time. Look at the turn out, most of the crew has shown up as well as a few locals."

She nodded.

"Even Syaoran showed up, he rarely attends this sort of thing."

Sakura looked up and saw those deep amber eyes staring right at her.

She was immediately overcome with a desire to prove herself. There was no way she would let Syaoran Li see her weak or defeated. She thought back to the night before and then tried to push away the image. There was only a trace blush left on her cheek as she and Meilin walked over to the center of the yard.

"My forte is really hand to hand combat, but I want to see how you handle a sword," she said picking up a sword from the ground and tossing it to Sakura. "First to draw blood or disarm their opponent wins."

Sakura nodded, lifting her sword to get used to its weight.

Meilin got into a fighting stance, which Sakura immediately replicated.

They exchanged a quick nod to signal the beginning of the fight.

Meilin made the first move lunging forward with lighting speed, which Sakura barely missed by jumping away at just the right time.

Meilin remained focus on Sakura and slashed forward which she once again was able to dodge.

Sakura mad a quick feint right and went to slash left, but Meilin's sword was already blocking the hit. She broke contact with the sword immediately, knowing that Meilin would have the advantage whenever their swords were in contact. Meilin jabbed the moment the swords separated catching a little piece of Sakura's shirt as she tried to dodge the attack.

Meilin continued the assault by thrusting her sword forward, Sakura brought hers up to block just in time and quickly disengaged spinning to the side.

Meilin adjusted to the new direction seamlessly and slashed. Sakura once again blocked with her sword truly exerting herself to stop the blade and immediately broke contact once again leaping to the side to change direction and this time lunging in an attempt to catch Meilin off guard.

However Meilin's sword met hers and she had to once again disengage the sword as Meilin's strength was already beginning to overpower her. This time Meilin was ready and made a quick slash for her legs, which Sakura dodged by jumping out of the way and immediately delivered three quick jabs at Meilin. The first of which seemed to catch her off guard but she blocked just in time.

Sakura decided from there on out she would not stop moving and not allow Meilin to control the direction of the fight any longer.

Sakura lunged forward but then immediately swiped at the legs and twisted around to be on Meilin's right. Meilin managed to block the attacks but was once again met with Sakura's sword slashing down from above which she blocked in time to see Sakura hop over again this time at her back. Meilin pivoted and blocked the forward jab and left swipe that immediately followed, again Sakura hopped away and continued her attack.

Sakura did not put too much strength behind these attacks and was careful to maintain her balance and control by not throwing herself into the moves she performed.

Meilin continued to block all of Sakura's attacks and doled out a few of her own only to be met with Sakura dodging out of the way and attacking from a different direction.

Syaoran was surprised to see Meilin getting flustered and truly exerting herself to keep up with Sakura's speed. Pieces of auburn hair began escaping the pale pin ribbon which contained them as Sakura remained completely focused on the task at hand.

Meilin began struggling to keep up with Sakura's onslaught of attacks. As soon as she blocked a move Sakura was already striking again.

Frustrated she saw the forward slash Sakura was delivering and blocked the sword full force actually doling out enough pressure to throw Sakura backwards onto her back.

Meilin triumphantly ran over to end the match, swiping across in an attempt to disarm but Sakura had rolled out of the way and hopped back onto her feet.

Sakura feinted right but Meilin began swiping at her left which she was barely able to block.

Meilin was clearly tiring, she was now delivering less shots but the few she managed showed the full extent of her strength.

Sakura was now being jerked around with each block and hit. She hopped around and tried to attack from all angles but now Meilin was much more forceful with her blocks and Sakura was beginning to tire as well.

Sakura swiped at Meilin, but she blocked hard making Sakura stumble backward.

Meilin had a determined look in her eye as she thrusted forward, ready to end the fight.

Sakura threw all her strength into the block and quickly wrapped her sword around the blade and quickly pulled her sword back in, sending the other sword flying through the air.

She watched in amazement as the sword flew in the air and several feet away. She could faintly hear cheering but was more focused as Meilin bowed in defeat.

She smiled with good humor, "They were right, you are good. Just don't cross me in hand to hand combat because I guarantee there would be no competition."

Sakura nodded emphatically, "to be honest I'm amazed I lasted a minute against you today let alone…"

But she was cut off as Tomoyo ran up to her and swept her into a big hug, "Oh Sakura, I knew you could do it. It was such a good fight! Don't worry, I will stitch up that little tear in your shirt tonight."

Syaoran was amazed that the little scrap of a girl he had only met a few weeks before could actually defeat a member of the Li clan. She never ceased to amaze him. He smiled slightly as he watched her dazed expression as person after person went to congratulate her.

Meilin was handling the loss well but Syaoran could tell she was disappointed. She walked over to him.

"I'm surprised you came. You never come to these fights, and you seemed so focused on your work earlier," she said accusingly.

"Eriol and I finished," he said calmly.

"Well we still-"

"We will talk about it at dinner Meilin, so why don't you get ready."

"Fine," said Meilin flipping her hair and defiantly walking away.

The crowd around Sakura was beginning to die down as people were getting ready for dinner.

"I think the black and green dress is the way to go tonight," said Tomoyo thoughtfully, "It will remind everyone what a fierce competitor you are, the other ones make you look too innocent."

She walked back inside saying something about letting the dress air out.

Sakura turned around finally alone when she came face to face with a pair of amber eyes.

"You did well."

Sakura blushed fiercely now confronted with the very person she had been trying to avoid all day.

"Thanks, I didn't think I stood a chance," said Sakura timidly.

"You have been full of surprises lately," said Syaoran leaning in to tuck a few loose strands of hair behind her ear.

Sakura's heart was practically beating out of her chest.

"I'm going to go get ready for dinner, I think Tomoyo is already upstairs waiting for me," she said, desperate to escape the situation.

Without waiting for a response she turned around and ran to the door.

Tomoyo was waiting for her upstairs and Sakura promptly changed into her dress.

She looked in the mirror as Tomoyo helped her tighten the corset top. The top of the dress was black and embroidered with bright green and the skirt was a matching green embroidered with black. The skirt was bunched up over her left knee and tied up with a green ribbon.

She took down her hair and lightly ran the brush through a few times allowing loose curls to fall past her shoulder.

Tomoyo was dressed in a violet and white dress of similar style that made her look angelic.

The two of them walked down the stairs together where everyone else was sitting.

"You two look wonderful," said Rika enthusiastically passing a plate of food over.

"Syaoran this rule is ridiculous," cried Meilin. "We are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves. It is silly having us wait in Carouse for extended amounts of time just for you all to occasionally return for a visit."

Syaoran continued to wait patiently.

"I know you don't believe that nonsense about bad luck, lots of crews have women aboard now," she continued.

"While you are able to fight, none of you have any substantial knowledge on sailing or working aboard a ship," he responded.

"We could learn," Chiharu responded with fierce determination.

Naoko piped in, "We've never had a problem making ourselves useful."

Syaoran looked over at Eriol who shrugged, "It would require a few changes in our supply levels and room arrangements aboard but otherwise I have no further objections."

Mika nodded, "Naoko could really help me with the inventory, it gets a bit overwhelming sometimes."

Syaoran sighed heavily, "Fine, but I am only making this exception for you. You will be invited aboard but it is only because of your fighting ability and your loyalty to the crew."

The girls exchanged victorious glances.

"It will be so nice having other women aboard," beamed Tomoyo.

Sakura nodded in agreement.

"Lets have a round of drinks," cried Meilin enthusiastically.

Sakura was eager to get away for a few minutes and volunteered to go get them.

Syaoran was entranced the moment Sakura came down the stairs, looking sultry in her green and black dress which flashed a bit of leg. He quickly volunteered to help her after she left the table eager to get her alone.

"Eleven glasses of the spiced rum please," she called to the bartender.

"That will be five gold pieces," he responded.

Sakura went into her change purse to dig out the change.

"Don't bother," said Syaoran who stood directly behind her, tossing five gold coins onto the bar.

The bartender took the coins and hurried off to prepare the drinks.

Sakura turned around, "Thanks," she paused for a moment, "It was really nice of you to allow the other girls on board."

"It was overdue," said Syaoran, "Why only eleven drinks?"

"I figured I would hold off. I think I may have… overindulged last night," she said blushing furiously.

Syaoran nodded thoughtfully and then got a mischievous look on his face, "You know, there is a better way you could thank me."

Sakura cocked her head to the side in confusion.

Syaoran smiled devishly lifting up Sakura's chin with his fingers and leaned in to whisper in her ear, "with a kiss."

"Order up," called the bartender.

"I-I," Sakura stammered.

Syaoran continued to tease her, leaning against the bar he huskily replied, "You did just fine last night Sakura, there is no reason to be nervous."

Sakura was absolutely mortified, her cheeks were the color of a tomato as Syaoran continued to lean into her.

Sakura flipped around to the bar, promptly filling her hands with drinks, "The order is ready."

She turned to hurry back to the table but was stopped by Syaoran's arm.

"This is the second time today, you have tried to escape me Sakura. Do I make you nervous."

At this Sakura grew irritated, there was no way she would let Syaoran know he had this much control of her. She slammed down the drinks in annoyance.

"You don't have much affect on me at all, I assure you," she replied defiantly.

"Well then a little kiss shouldn't hurt," he goaded.

"Fine," she huffed.

Syaoran leaned in capturing his mouth with hers. Sakura was overcome with desire and couldn't help as she passionately responded.

He wrapped his arms around her tiny waist as she moved her hands into his hair.

Then just as suddenly they broke apart.

Sakura caught her breath.

"Are you still unaffected," he asked softly.

"I didn't feel a thing," replied Sakura breathlessly wearing a dazed expression on her face.

Syaoran smiled warmly as they grabbed the glasses at the bar and took them over to the table.

AN: I thought about continuing the chapter for a bit but couldn't think of a better ending for it, and didn't want to make my fans wait any longer. I hoped to have this up before Christmas but the holidays struck full force and the only reason I was able to finish when I did was because I had the stomach flu all last night :(

Anyways I had fun writing this chapter but am eager to get to the next few, which will be pretty exciting and contain a bit more intrigue. I loved how playboy Syaoran came out a bit in this chapter.

Stars 'n Moon: Never fear, there will be plenty of opportunities for Syaoran to be jealous in future chapters. I have been trying to make the chapters longer, the current one is 17 pages and I was ideally aiming for 20 but I didn't want to sacrifice a good ending just to get three more pages in. I am definitely attempting to make them longer though as that was one of the things that bothers me about the earlier chapters.

Nikky- The last one was a favorite of mine as well, however I think my favorite will be either the next chapter or the one after depending on what makes it into each one.

Kare4aKiss- I hadn't even thought of that, but I agree it would be pretty amusing. Thanks for the tip and I hope this will tide you over until next chapter.

Cariux5- Haha Sakura is a walking contradiction in this fanfic. Sometimes she is extremely confident and other times very timid but I think it fits.

ChaoticPhoenix27- Yeah I enjoyed writing the kiss scene, especially Syaoran's frustration immediately after :P

Brightestoflights- Hopefully the heat should continue through the next few chapters and should definitely get pretty spicy later on.

White wolfox – sorry to keep you waiting so long, hopefully the next one will be out sooner.

Humbleblossom-paulina – I think it is safe to say that Syaoran is now officially pursuing Sakura

Yingfa07- Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews, they are VERY much appreciated. Yeah we will be seeing the aunt again soon.

Anonymous angel – I'm glad you like it, as long as people keep reading I will keep writing.

Forgottenforever13- They were indeed, I was actually disappointed when they didn't make it back into this chapter, but soon enough.

AngelEmCuti- yes more matchmaking in this chapter, although after this chapter Syaoran seems pretty set on Sakura :D


	12. The Festival Begins

_**AN: Thank you for your patience, I will try and be better next time. When writers block hits it hits hard, even if you know exactly what you want to happen three pages later.**_

**Chapter 12**

The next day was not as exciting. Tomoyo and Rika had locked Sakura out of her room while they began working on dresses. Naoko had left early that morning deciding to spend the day with Mika.

She ended up spending the afternoon in the training yard chatting with Chiharu and Meilin.

Sakura leaned back, looking at the sky disinterestedly and remembered something that had been bothering her, "So who is this person that Syaoran is trying to avoid?"

Chiharu leaned in suddenly interested in the conversation, "He is a rival captain who has caused real trouble for Syaoran. You see Syaoran used to take a fleet out to sea and had three or four boats with him at all times."

Meilin cut her off, "You are forgetting something! The captain has singled out Syaoran because he has a longstanding grudge against the Li clan."

Chiharu nodded impatiently, "Anyways, one day while they were out at sea, this captain confronted the fleet and stole one of his ships."

"Syaoran was so mad. He never even got the chance to confront him face to face because the other ships in his fleet were blocking the way," said Meilin sensationally.

"Now he has a very large fleet and has one of the most powerful crews around."

"I am surprised Syaoran avoids him then, I think he would be more likely to confront him," said Sakura thoughtfully.

Meilin nodded, "He does, however he would not be able to do it in Carouse where his crew is out numbered. If a fight between captains were to ensue, the crews would join in which is why he won't fight here. He needs to build up his crew and fleet again so that the two will once more be equal."

"Surely that would take a long time though," replied Sakura.

"Not necessarily. The Li clan has enormous riches, as does Syaoran himself. I told him after it happened that he could go out and just buy another boat, but his pride has gotten in the way," sighed Meilin. "He was so ashamed that he was not able to face the captain that he got rid of his other ships in the fleet, to avoid a repeat occurrence."

Chiharu nodded, "The vengeance is still one of the most respected and fierce crews on the sea, but Syaoran needs to build up his fleet to once again be the most powerful."

"Is there anyways to convince Syaoran to build up his fleet," asked Sakura curiously.

"We have all tried," said Meilin sadly, "His mother might be able to if she knew, but he is very stubborn and might not even do it for her."

Sakura nodded solemnly.

The sun had gone down and the girls walked back inside to sit at a table.

Syaoran was sitting at a nearby table talking to Takashi and Eriol.

"Maybe we should swap ships entirely to accommodate the additional people," suggested Eriol.

Takashi nodded, "The extra space would be nice. We would certainly have more space to lay out navigation plans."

Syaoran scowled, "The Vengeance packs more fire power for its size, another ship might not fair as well in battle."

Eriol sighed, "Syaoran I know you don't want me to say it, but its either that or we should set sail with two ships."

"Not an option," growled Syaoran.

The girls overhear the conversation, and Sakura was thankful she could understand what was happening.

Takashi nodded, "Syaoran we had four ships back then, we are only talking about two. One more ship would not prevent you from engaging an attacking ship if you wanted to."

Meilin stood up and walked over to Syaoran's table, desperate to contribute,  
"It's time to change. We've let you have things your way the past four years but its time to move past that. Don't you want to be able to one day take back what you lost-"

Syaoran stood up, "What I lost was respect. I had my own ship stolen from me, right in front of my nose. I was a laughing stock! I will never allow myself or my crew to be put in that position again… no matter what."

It was obvious that no one would argue with Syaoran past that. Sakura merely looked down at her hands, suddenly feeling awkward for having listened in.

Syaoran walked away angrily, while the rest ate an awkward supper together before heading back up to bed.

Sakura had gone up to bed early with everyone else however spent the next hour staring up at her plain white ceiling completely incapable of sleep. Sakura finally gave up, and got out of her bed opting to do some late night exploring instead.

She put on a robe and left her room quietly trying not to disturb anyone.

The hallways were empty and there was no sight of anyone else. It was almost eerie how quiet it was and she shivered a bit at the thought.

She tiptoed down the stairs and headed down the hallway on the second floor, which she had not seen yet. The hallway came to a three way part and she decided to turn to the left where there was a large door at the end it. She quietly edged towards the door, even though it did not appear to be anyone's room.

The door was partially open and she peaked inside to see a roaring fire in the fireplace and a few big leather chairs all around.

She walked in more confident now, hoping that the fire would calm her down until she was able to sleep.

She was about to sit in one of the chairs when she noticed someone was already sitting in another one and jumped in fright.

Syaoran was thoughtfully staring into the fire as if hoping it would provide some useful advice.

"S-sorry, I didn't know someone else was in here," stammered Sakura.

Syaoran looked up distractedly, "It's fine, you are welcome to stay."

Sakura nodded and sat down.

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

Finally Syaoran looked over at Sakura, "Do you think I am wrong too?"

She slowly looked up and shook her head; "You have good reason to feel the way you do. That crew was cowardly to steal your ship without at least confronting you and they wounded your reputation in the process."

Syaoran nodded satisfied.

"The question is whether you want to limit your own potential as a captain because of one bad experience," she added.

He looked up at Sakura as if seeing her for the first time.

"What do you want from life?" he asked her.

She paused thoughtfully, "I'm not sure. I am just happy to finally have a little control over my life."

She laughed.

"The past few weeks I have felt like an entirely new person, and I think I like who I have become."

Syaoran couldn't help but smile back at her, "the feeling is mutual."

Sakura blushed and looked back down again.

They spent the next several minutes happily sitting in silence enjoying the fire. He looked over and saw Sakura angelically sleeping in the chair. Without a second thought he gently picked her up and carried her back to her room.

****

Sakura awoke to a loud knocking.

"Wake up Sakura, your dress is done and you need to get ready for the party today!"

She grumpily rolled out of bed and opened the door.

Tomoyo was beaming at her holding a pink dress with a corset top and flouncy skirt, embroidered with little white sakura flowers.

`"I didn't think the party was until later," yawned Sakura.

"It's not but we meet up with our crew before hand. They reserved a lounge and we have our own gathering before the party."

Sakura sighed and began to put on the dress.

"Afterwards we go down to the party together as a crew so we have to get ready now," said Tomoyo.

Sakura looked up and noticed for the first time that Tomoyo was wearing a lavender and white dress in the same style as her own.

"You look beautiful Tomoyo."

Her hair was curled and part of it was bundled together with a matching lavender ribbon.

Tomoyo smiled at Sakura, "Get ready quickly, people are already heading downstairs."

With that Tomoyo spun her around and started buttoning up the back of her dress and styling her hair.

They walked down to the second floor together, this time walking straight through the big double doors.

The room was full of crewmembers all chatting and eating breakfast, which was set up on a large banquet table against the wall.

She spotted the girls all chatting animatedly in the corner, Tomoyo and Sakura smiled at each other and walked over to greet them.

Meilin brought them in close and whispered excitedly, "Syaoran said he has an announcement to make today."

Rika giggled, "That is all he seems to be doing lately."

Chiharu gently nudged Rika in the ribs, "Well he has good reason, he hasn't been here for the midsummer festival in ages."

Meilin nodded solemnly, "I don't know what convinced him to stay this year, but it was getting embarrassing being aligned to the only crew that never shows up.

Naoko rolled her eyes and looked over at Sakura and Tomoyo to explain, "It was annoying, through-out the whole event people would make snide comments to us about our crew."

Sakura nodded thoughtfully.

Meilin's face contorted in anger, "Of course no one would dare insult the crew if they were present."

Tomoyo shot her a questioning look, "The Li family, to which both Syaoran and I belong are one of the most powerful and feared families in all of Asia. We control an incredible amount of wealth and respect. Half of the crews in existence, would not be around if it weren't for the Li's. However that doesn't stop a few drunk sailors from taking shots when they don't think word will get back to anyone of power."

Sakura was puzzled, "But you are a member of the Li family, why would they say anything derogatory to you?"

Meilin sighed, "I am a member of the Li family, but I am not a powerful one. They know I am of little importance in the grand scheme of things."

"Surely you could tell Syaoran though," supplied Sakura.

"Unfortunately if I did that, there would be hardly any crews." Melin ran her hands through her hair distractedly and continued, "Since Syaoran had the ship stolen from him, he has been downplaying the power of the Li family. The lack of a fleet when he sails and decreased influence in the port cities make him appear less powerful than he is. It is only natural for people to talk." She took a deep breath, "If he found out what people were saying they would be dead within minutes. That is why I have been encouraging him to expand the crew and fleet. He needs to take his position as the most powerful captain on the seas once again."

Naoko nodded solemnly, "In all fairness though, it does seem like he is trying to reinstate his power. He is just so stubborn sometimes."

Meilin opened her mouth but was interrupted.

Syaoran stood up and cleared his throat, "We have not been in Carouse for a festival in some time. It is therefore important that we make sure no one has forgotten us. Everyone is getting a bonus for this week, I expect all of you to behave impeccably and remind everyone the Wolves are not to be crossed. We hold the power on sea and at port."

Eriol came out with a cart bearing several large bags, which he began to pass around.

Meilin smiled at everyone, "Well at least I know he has been thinking about retaking his power. If we keep money flowing through Carouse this week, everyone will begin to remember how much power we truly hold."

Tomyo nodded thoughtfully, "A very subtle way to address the problem."

Eriol walked over to the girls handing each a bag, before moving on to another group.

Chiharu and Meilin immediately ripped open up their bags.

Rika paused, "We should bring these upstairs, this is too large to carry around for the whole day."

"I just got down here," Meilin wined, "Lets just drop them off before we head down to the party."

At that moment Sakura suddenly smelled a heavenly aroma coming from the other side of the room and was reminded that she hadn't had anything to eat yet this morning.

She quickly explained to the girls and headed to the banquet table.

She surveyed the table and grabbed a warm roll promptly stuffing it into her mouth. Halfway through it she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Enjoying yourself?"

Sakura turned around and was greeted by a pair of amber eyes.

She quickly swallowed, "Yes the food is delicious."

He smiled, "I'm glad you like it."

'This whole experience has been amazing, and the festival hasn't even started yet. I'm not sure what to expect, but I am excited," she beamed.

Syaoran ran a hand through his hair, "The festival certainly is an experience…"

"You seem bothered," observed Sakura.

"Yes and no," he sighed, "I used to always enjoy the festival especially when I was younger, lately I have noticed the politics behind it all though."

"What do you mean?"

"This whole festival is about who holds the power over the seas. We rarely cross other pirates while abroad so it's these few times when we are all together that it becomes clear which crews are the most powerful. Everything I do, as well as the actions of my crew are closely monitored by other captains."

Sakura nodded thoughtfully, "I will do my best to make sure I reflect well upon you and the rest of the crew."

Syaoran gave a half-smile, "I wasn't concerned on how you would reflect on me. Just the situation as a whole."

"I know I am not the most worldly person in this room and therefore any analysis of your ability by me might seem biased. However, I know your crew, they are brave, intelligent people and they trust and respect you. So when they say you are the best captain around, I believe them and I hope you do too."

Syaoran gently lifted his hand, tilting Sakura's chin up and staring into her soft emerald eyes.

Sakura felt her heart flutter and heat rise up into her cheeks.

"I am looking forward to learning more about you Kinomoto Sakura, you remain a mystery to me."

Sakura turned her face away, which was now a bright red and quickly stuffed the rest of the roll into her mouth so she wouldn't have to respond.

Syaoran shot Sakura a devilish smile before walking away.

Sakura did her best to avoid Syaoran the rest of the party, every time she was around him lately her heart felt like it would beat out of her chest. She decided to cling closely to the girls sides, sure that she would be safe from Syaoran if she hung by them.

Meilin broke into a laugh, "I am so excited for tonight, it will be nice to kick off the festival with the crew here."

Chiharu nodded, "I was starting to get bored out of my mind, it is very frustrating to fight off the advances of others all the while explaining that I am courting someone he just isn't at the festival. If the crew wasn't here this year I was ready to just lock myself in my room and hide until the week was over."

"This party isn't part of the festival though? Isn't it just being held by the inn," Tomoyo inquired.

Rika nodded, "Many inns and taverns on Carouse hold a kick-off party for the festival. It is a big celebration before the actual traditions of the midsummer festival begin."

"What sort of traditions," asked Sakura.

"Well for that I need to give you a little history. It starts off with the great families of pirating The Li Clan, The Reed's, The Amamiya's and the Kazu's all of which are said to have performed extraordinary magic and held great power. The most powerful of which was Clow Reed, he was the son of the English leader of the Reeds and a high-ranking member of the Li clan. Rather than following the path laid out for him he explored the world and learned magic that the world had never seen before. Rumor says that each time he came upon a form of magic he would transform it into the form of a card. When he retired from adventuring it is said he bestowed a single card to the four great families and hid the others away. Each day is dedicated to one of these forms of magic."

"But there are seven days of the festival and only four cards were given as a gift," said Tomoyo.

Naoko answered, "Well the first day is dedicated to the history of the Clow Cards and a celebration of all of them. There are two cards though that are well known and have never been found, they were the supposed favorites of Clow Reed, the light and the dark. The light is on the second day of the festival and kicks off the celebration of individual cards of power, the other card is dark, which is celebrated on the last day of the festival. The four in between are the cards given as a gift to the great families. Day three is Water, the card gifted to the Reeds. Day four is fire, which was given to the Li Clan. Day five is earth, the card of the Kazu's, and Day six is Wind, the card given to the Amamiya clan."

"Is this the same Li clan that you belong to Meilin?" asked Sakura.

"Yes it is," Meilin nodded, "The Li clan is one of the oldest families of the sea and certainly one of the most powerful."

"Have you seen the card?" asked Tomoyo excitedly.

"I have not," said Meilin, "The Li clan is rooted in secrecy and I am not influential enough to have discovered all of them. Syaoran may have, I've never asked him. He is the chosen one of the clan and therefore has access to nearly everything."

"Chosen one?" asked Sakura.

Meilin was clearly not enjoying the subject but answered anyways, "It means that he is the leader of the Li clan. They currently let him be captain of the Li Fleet however I have a feeling that they won't let him roam the seas forever. Especially if they have heard of our decreased influence as of late."

Sakura did not ask anymore questions as she could see Meilin was no longer comfortable talking about this.

The conversations wrapped up soon afterwards and the girls went back to their rooms to drop off the bags of money and prepare for the festivities downstairs.

Sakura was nervous for the party and decided to stay by Tomoyo's side for the whole night, she even waited until Tomoyo was ready to leave her room.

Tomoyo knocked lightly on Sakura's door and was beaming when she opened the door.

"Are you ready to go down?" she asked.

Sakura nodded, noting that her throat had suddenly gone dry.

The inn was filled like she had never seen before, the women were all wearing fancy dresses and even the men had dressed up for the occasion. She quickly scanned the room and found Chiharu and Takashi chatting animatedly by the bar as she sat in his lap.

Sakura quickly turned away but to her surprise realized that almost everyone was acting in a similar fashion.

Sakura followed Tomoyo to the bar where they each ordered a glass of mead. The noise was unbelievable as they looked around for friends.

She suddenly caught sight of a busty blonde sitting on a chestnut haired mans lap and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Is that Syaoran," Tomoyo asked.

She took a deep breath and nodded, for reasons she couldn't explain she was full of white-hot rage and embarrassment.

She quickly turned away, determined not to look at him for the rest of night.

Syaoran sat in his chair completely bored as Karin hung on him.

"Syaoran," whined Karin, "You aren't paying any attention to me."

She pushed her lips out into a perfectly practiced pout and leaned closer to Syaoran. "Or maybe you would prefer if we took the party upstairs," she said suggestively.

He pushed her off his lap, "Not in the mood Karin."

She scowled distorting her pretty face and followed his gaze over to a pretty auburn haired girl in a pink and white dress.

Syaoran got up and walked over to the bar.

Sakura was silently sipping her mead while Tomoyo and Eriol chatted beside her when suddenly she felt an arm around her waist.

A man with black locks smiled at her, "You seem a little out of place here darling."

Sakura squirmed out of his grasp and replied, "I don't know what you mean."

"A beautiful lady like you doesn't belong up here all by herself, I think I better keep you company."

Sakura thought back to the pretty blonde keeping Syaoran occupied and made a decision.

She smiled coyly, "I suppose so, but are you sure you are up for the task. I get bored easily."

The man grinned back at her, "Well I will do my best to keep you entertained."

The man suddenly caught a glimpse of the Captain of the Vengeance staring daggers at him and quickly excused himself.

For some reason for the rest of the night Sakura was unable to engage any man in conversation without them immediately coming up with an excuse to leave.

Eriol and Tomoyo had since moved to the corner of the room where they got the best view of men flirting with Sakura and Syaoran scaring them off.

Sakura was confused as the sixth man who had approached her left with an excuse about seeing a friend.

Syaroan approached her, "You seem unhappy."

Sakura took a swig of mead, "I don't understand, I try and be friendly but everyone keeps leaving."

He took the empty glass from her and hiding a mischievous smile he whispered in her ear, "They don't know what they are missing."

Sakura blushed and looked up into his eyes, "You seemed otherwise occupied earlier."

Syaoran paused, "Karen is just a friend… if even."

"Oh? And what am I," Sakura asked.

He leaned in to her, "Someone I want to get to know much better."

He pushed back a piece of hair behind her ear.

Sakura folded her arms and turned away, breaking the spell. "Sometimes I don't know what to make of you. You are grouchy, then pensive and then this!"

"What is _this_ exactly?" he asked.

"Y-y-you start talking all soft! It's like you put me under some sort of spell."

Syaoran groaned, "Sakura I guarantee that you have it the other way around. You come in and act like no one I have ever met before. Even now, you are always surprising me."

Sakura turned around and looked into his eyes, "Really?"

He picked up her hand, "I am completely under your spell."

Sakura paused in thought then lifted her chin up and gave him a chaste kiss before running upstairs.

Syaoran sat down at the bar watching her run away, she never ceased to surprise him.

Eriol popped down next to him with Tomoyo following suit.

"Rough night," he inquired.

Syaoran ignored Eriol and ordered a drink from the bartender.

"I don't suppose you happened to see all those men interested in our little Sakura," he baited.

Syaoran openly glared at Eriol.

"Strangest thing though, " continued Tomoyo, "All of them left as if they had gotten scared away."

Syaoran put down his drink , "Make sure she wears green tomorrow," and walked upstairs.

Eriol grinned at Tomoyo, "Seems like its still a sore subject."

Tomoyo smiled back in agreement.

The next day as Sakura was brushing her hair in front of the mirror, Tomoyo burst into the room.

"I have your wardrobe all picked out for today," she announced.

Rika told me that the day starts with a big performance and the shops are open all night.

She pulled out a beautiful emerald green dress that went down to mid calf and was a beautiful crepe material.

Sakura slipped it on looked fresh and stunning, the top of the dress clinged to her top, enhancing all of her curves with a green ribbon wrapped around her waist.

She brushed her hair sweeping half of it up into a green ribbon.

Tomoyo was wearing a beautiful satin blue dress with light purple embroidery.

They walked downstairs together and met up with the rest of the girls who were eagerly waiting. Takashi and Mika were already downstairs as well wearing colored button down shirts and pressed dress pants.

Chiharu was listing off all of the places she wanted to shop after the performance as Takashi feigned interest.

Naoko began giving an animated description of the performance last year as Tomoyo listened intently. Mika was talking to Meilin about what daggers were the best quality.

The rest of the group came down and the group left the inn to walk to the performance.

"You sure know how to make an exit," she heard a deep voice say.

Sakura turned around and gave a coy smile, "I don't know what you are referring to."

"You are quite unpredictable Miss. Kinomoto, I am making it my personal job to keep an eye on you this week."

"I think I do fine on my own," she replied defiantly.

Syaoran nodded solemnly and replied, "Its not you I am worried about.

As they continued their walk through the streets of Carouse they noticed the crowd thickening with a big clearing up ahead.

The stage was in the center of it and open on all sides and the crowd surrounded it. Syaoran gently took Sakura by the arm and whispered, "Follow me."

They separated from the group and Syaoran gently guided her through the crowd. Suddenly he picked her up by the waist, Sakura panicked and started to squirm.

"What are you doing?"

"Grab the branch!"

Sakura noticed a branch right above her and quickly grabbed it, pulling herself up onto it. Syaoran ran at the trunk, kicked himself off propelling him up to grab the branch and effortlessly swing himself up onto it.

They had a perfectly clear view of the stage.

"This is nice," said Sakura a bit surprised.

" I have been coming to Carouse since I was three, It is only natural I know the best seats in the house," he said with a smirk

"Three!" exclaimed Sakura, "This hardly seems like a child friendly area."

"It's not," Syaoran confirmed. "I was required to come here as part of my training."

"You started training at the age of three?"

Syaoran shifted his eyes down, "Actually I started training when I was one and a half."

She laughed, "What can they train one year old child to do?"

He smiled at her fondly, "I'm not sure, I certainly don't remember it."

The crowd hushed as people appeared on the stage. There were four groups one dressed in traditional Chinese apparel, another in tight corsets and lacey suits, the third in white linen covered in tattoos and gold jewelry, the fourth was simply dressed in cotton robes.

The groups circled the stage slowly spreading out from their groups and bumping into other groups. The circling increased in speed and as they bumped into each other the groups began to fight. A pillar of smoke shot up into the air and as it cleared a man dressed in blue appeared, and threw a card up in the air causing them all to freeze in place.

Light burst from every part of the stage and all of the families backed away. The man in blue focused the light on the families separating them from each other.

They all sat down at the edge of the stage long blue pieces of blue cloth came out and started shaking the man tried to keep his chin above the waves of cloth, he pushed down and the waves lowered, he lifted a card and they disappeared.

Fire dancers came out waving the fire closer and closer to the man. He dodged out of the way and lifted a card the fire was doused in water. The fire dancers fell to the ground and the man in blue lifted up another card and the fire dancers disappeared.

Then the stage began to lift up and fall in different places, the man could barely stand on his feet. He pulled out a card and the stage went back to its normal position.

Pale streamers came from all corners of the stage, the man seemed to be pushed this way and that. The stage raised around him and protected him from the streamers as he raised a card and the streamers disappeared.

The stage erupted as creatures and objects popped up and swirled around the man. The streamers, waves, fire dancers and the stage popped up to fight back against the creatures. The man threw out cards and slowly one by one they each disappeared as well as the four elements that helped the man. Suddenly all was dark and Sakura was suddenly aware of how much time had past, the sun had already set.

The man was tired and holding dozens of cards. He held up a card and light shone through the darkness. The four groups stood once more and the man visited each one giving each a card. The waves of cloth left the man in blue and stood behind the group in corsets and suits. The fire went behind the group dressed in traditional Chinese garments. The stage raised behind the group dressed in white linen and gold rings. The streamers swirled behind the group in the robes.

The man disappeared with the rest of the cards into the darkness.

Everyone in the crowd began cheering.

Sakura looked over at Syaoran, "Which family was which?"

Syaoran replied, "The family in suits and dresses were the Reeds. The family with the ceremonial robes were the Li's-"

"Your family."

"Yes, and the family with the robes are the Amamiya's and the white tunics are the Kazu's.

"Syaoran, can I ask you a question."

He nodded.

"Have you ever seen the Li families clow card, are they really magic?"

He paused choosing his words carefully. "There are some things in this world containing great power, inexplicable power."

Sakura nodded, "yes I agree."

"The Li family does have a card, I have seen it once. They keep it hidden away because each of the original families know that many people would like to get their hands on one of the cards. They are therefore very rarely moved or seen."

"Are they really magic though?" she pressed.

"Its diffic-"

"Do you think they are magic?"

"In short yes. When I was around it I felt an extraordinary amount of power. Power like I had never felt."

"That is amazing, I've always thought there was some sort of magic when I was younger. My brother had a sixth sense," she replied saddened at the memory of her brother.

"You have a brother," he asked.

"He died at sea," she replied.

Syaoran did not press the subject any further.

"The Li clan is incredibly traditional, and certain members of the clan are privileged with information."

Sakura paused, "Are you sure you should be telling me this?"

He smile mischievously, "I don't care about should or shouldn't."

She smiled back, "But I do."

"Fair Enough," Syaoran hopped down from the tree branch.

"How did you-"

"Jump, I'll catch you."

Sakura cautiously slid off the branch and into Syaoran's arms.

He gently placed her on the ground.

"The group is probably wondering where we went," said Sakura gazing into Syaoran's deep amber eyes.

"Yes," he replied.

"Lets go," replied Sakura promptly running away dragging Syaoran behind her.

They met back with the rest of the group on the streets of the market.

"Where did you two disappear to?" asked Meilin suggestively.

Sakura completely unaware of the implication chirped, "We were watching the production. It was fascinating."

Syaoran gave Meilin a warning look, "I actually have something to take care of, I will meet you back at the inn."

Sakura was happy to explore the market once again, now in the twilight.

She wandered off with Meilin looking at a stall full of old trinkets. Meilin had noticed that several men had eyed them with interest but Meilin was a powerful fighter and member of the Li clan, and the girl in green matched the description of the girl Captain Li had spent the previous night hovering over protectively. That was enough to send any interested men in the other direction.

They shared a warm pastry filled with custard they purchased from a street vendor as they walked back to the inn.

Sakura smiled feeling very content and bid everyone a good night.

As she was getting ready for bed she noticed a little pink box on her dresser as she walked into her room.

There was a little piece of paper on the top with a picture of a cherry blossom on it. She opened the little box and saw a beautiful gold necklace with a wolf pendant hanging from it with emerald chips throughout so it sparkled. She held up the little green wolf into the light to see it shimmer in the light.

She smiled, admiring her beautiful gift and wondering who could have given it to her. She carefully clasped it around her neck and sunk into her bed.

_**AN: More to come… I have the whole festival planned out by what happens each day so hopefully the next chapter doesn't take me as long. Keep the reviews coming, I have the best fans in the world :D **_

_**More Q&A in the next chapter, I was in a rush to get this posted and figured you would all appreciate my promptness this time around. **_


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